"Internet phenomena" and "Internet sensation" redirect here. For people who have achieved fame through the Internet, see Internet celebrity.
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by editing the page to add missing items, with references to reliable sources.
Internet phenomena are social and cultural phenomena specific to the Internet, such as Internet memes, which include popular catchphrases, images, viral videos, and jokes. When such fads and sensations occur online, they tend to grow rapidly and become more widespread because the instant communication facilitates word of mouth transmission.
This list focuses on the internet phenomena which are accessible regardless of local internet regulations.
Beanie Babies – Cited as being the world's first Internet sensation in 1995.[2]
Cerveza Cristal – A Chilean beer company that produced a series of advertisements during a Star Wars original trilogy broadcast in 2003. The commercials, titled The Force is with Cristal Beer, would air seamlessly with the scenes in the trilogy, such as a pair of hands like Obi-Wan Kenobi's opening a chest, revealing the beer. The advertisements were critically acclaimed in the country and became internationally viral on Twitter in March 2024.[3]
Cooks Source infringement controversy – This publication drew backlash after it committed copyright infringement by using an online article without permission for commercial purposes. This backlash further increased due to Cooks Source's response which showed a misunderstanding of copyright and an increasing agitation to the original writer of the article.[4]
Elf Yourself (2006) and Scrooge Yourself (2007) – Interactive websites created by Jason Zada and Evolution Bureau for OfficeMax's holiday seasonadvertising campaign. Elf Yourself allows visitors to upload images of themselves or their friends, see them as dancing elves,[5][6] and includes options to save or share the video.[7] According to ClickZ, visiting the Elf Yourself site "has become an annual tradition that people look forward to".[8] While not selling any one specific product, the two were created to raise consumer awareness of the sponsoring firm.[9]
Flex Tape – An infomercial of the product Flex Tape. It became a meme after YouTuber JonTron made a video reviewing the infomercial.[10]
FreeCreditReport.com – A series of TV commercials that were posted on the Internet; many spoofs of the commercials were made and posted on YouTube.[11]
HeadOn – A June 2006 advertisement for a homeopathic product claimed to relieve headaches. Ads featured the tagline, "HeadOn. Apply directly to the forehead", stated three times in succession, accompanied by a video of a model using the product without ever directly stating the product's purpose. The ads were successively parodied on sites such as YouTube and rapperLil Jon even made fun of it.[12]
Kerfuś – A robot with cat face use as a mascot for Carrefour. The robot became viral in Poland in 2022, where Kerfuś became the main character of many memes and erotic pictures.[13][14]
Little Darth Vader – An advertisement by Volkswagen featuring young Max Page dressed in a Darth Vader costume running around his house trying to use "the Force". It was released on the Internet a few days prior to Super Bowl XLV in 2011, and quickly became popular.[15] As of 2013 it was the most shared ad of all time.[16]
LowerMyBills.com – Banner ads from this mortgage company feature endless loops of cowboys, women, aliens, and office workers dancing.[17][18]
"Mac Tonight/Moon Man" – A McDonald's commercial made to promote dinner sales. Starting in 2007, the character in the commercial, "Mac Tonight" was used in videos where he is depicted promoting violence against minorities and promoting the KKK with racist parodies of rap songs. The best-known parody, "Notorious KKK" (a parody of "Hypnotize" by The Notorious B.I.G.), has accumulated over 119,000 views on YTMND.[20]
Nicole Kidman AMC Theatres commercial – In September 2021, AMC Theatres began airing a commercial starring actress Nicole Kidman in its theaters and on television. The ad, written by screenwriter Billy Ray, was intended to spur theater attendance following the COVID-19 pandemic by highlighting the "magic" of the movie theater experience. The commercial's grand style and the earnest melodrama of Kidman's monologue has led the commercial to be appreciated as an artifact of camp. The commercial has been the subject of internet memes, parodies, merchandise, and audience participation rituals.[21]
"Nope, Chuck Testa" – A local commercial made for Ojai Valley Taxidermy, owned by Chuck Testa, suggesting that the stuffed creatures were alive until Testa appeared, saying "Nope, Chuck Testa!"; the ad soon went viral. The commercial was created by Rhett & Link for their show Rhett & Link: Commercial Kings.[22][23]
Potato Parcel – A web site that allows the user to send anonymous personalized messages on potatoes via the mail.[24][25][26]
Pepsi MAX & Jeff Gordon Present: Test Drive – A short film where NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon poses as an average car buyer to prank a cars salesman.[27] A sequel, Test Drive 2, was released the following year, with Gordon pranking a writer who had branded the original video as fake.[28]
"Rivals" – A commercial for video game retailer EB Games that promoted Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The commercial drew criticism for its concept and the performances of its actors.[29]
Vans (2016) – Featured in the "Damn Daniel" viral internet meme.
What Would You Do for a Klondike Bar? – A slogan at the end of commercials advertising the ice cream sandwich Klondike bar. People on YouTube and Facebook began posting videos depicting people in dangerous and absurdist situations attempting to reach a Klondike Bar in response to the slogan.[31]
"Whopper Whopper" – A song by American restaurant fast-food chain Burger King which serves as a jingle for the restaurant's signature burger, the Whopper.[32]
Will It Blend? – The blender product Blendtec, claimed by its creator Tom Dickson to be the most powerful blender, is featured in a series of YouTube videos, "Will It Blend?" where numerous food and non-food items are used within the blender.[33]
Xtranormal – A website allowing users to create videos by scripting the dialog and choosing from a menu of camera angles and predesigned CGI characters and scenes. Though originally designed to be used to ease storyboard development for filmmakers, the site quickly became popular after videos made with the tool, including "iPhone 4 vs HTC Evo", became viral.[34][35]
Animation and comics
Animutations – Early Adobe Flash-based animations, pioneered by Neil Cicierega in 2001, typically featuring foreign language songs (primarily Japanese, such as "Yatta"), set to random pop-culture images. The form is said to have launched the use of Flash for inexpensive animations that are now more common on the Internet.[36][37][38]
Arthur – A 1996 PBS educational series that became popular on the Internet in July 2016 through humorous stills, including a still of the title character's clenched fist.[39][40]
Ate my balls – One of the earliest examples of an internet meme, which involved web pages depicting a particular celebrity, fictional character, or other subject's relish for eating testicles.[41]
Axe Cop – Initially a web comic series with stories created by five-year-old Malachai Nicolle and drawn into comic form by his 29-year-old brother Ethan, the series gained viral popularity on the Internet due to the vividness and non-sequitur nature of Malachai's imagination, and has led to physical publication and a series of animated shorts in the 2012–2013 season for the Fox Television Network.[42][43][44]
Big Chungus – A still frame of the 1941 Merrie Melodies short Wabbit Twouble when Bugs Bunny mocks a fat Elmer Fudd. The meme originated from fictitious cover art for a video game titled Big Chungus (with "chungus" being a neologism associated with video game commentator James Stephanie Sterling), which featured a still from the scene, and was popularized by a Facebook post by a GameStop manager who alleged that a colleague's mother had inquired about purchasing the "game" as a gift.[46][47] Warner Bros. later incorporated Big Chungus into its own video game Looney Tunes World of Mayhem.[48]
Bongo Cat – Originated on Twitter on 7 May 2018, when a simple animated cat GIF, was edited for it to play the song "Athletic" from the Super Mario World soundtrack. This cat has since been edited to play various songs on bongos, and later other instruments.[49][50]
"Caramelldansen" – A spoof from the Japanese visual novel opening Popotan that shows the two main characters doing a hip swing dance with their hands over their heads, imitating rabbit ears, while the background song plays the sped-up version of the song "Caramelldansen", sung by the Swedish music group Caramell. Also known as Caramelldansen Speedycake Remix or Uma uma dance in Japan, the song was parodied by artists and fans who then copy the animation and include characters from other anime performing the dance.[51][52][53]
Charlie the Unicorn – A five-part series of videos involving the titular unicorn who is repeatedly hoodwinked by two other blue and pink unicorns, Lolz and Roffle, who take him on elaborate adventures to steal his belongings or cause him physical harm.[54]
Dancing baby – A 3D-rendered dancing baby that first appeared in 1996 by the creators of Character Studio for 3D Studio MAX, and became something of a late 1990s cultural icon, in part due to its exposure on worldwide commercials, editorials about Character Studio, and the popular television series Ally McBeal.[55]
The End of the World – A Flash-animated video by Jason Windsor in 2003 that depicts a situation when the entire world is nuked by rivalling countries.[56][57][58]
Homestar Runner – A Flash animated Internet cartoon by Mike Chapman, Craig Zobel, and Matt Chapman, created in 1996 and popularized in 2000. The cartoon contains many references to popular culture from the 1980s and 1990s, including video games, television, and popular music.[60]
I'll take a potato chip... and eat it!!! – A scene from the English-language dub of episode 8 of the anime adaptation of Death Note, showing the main character Light Yagami taking a potato chip from a bag of chips and eating the chip in a dramatic way.[61] The scene includes dramatic music and action movie-style camera cuts.
Joe Cartoon – Creator of interactive Flash animationsFrog in a Blender[62] and Gerbil in a Microwave,[63][64] which were two of the first Flash cartoons to receive fame on the Internet.[65]
"Loss" – A webcomic strip published on 2 June 2008, by Tim Buckley for his gaming-related webcomic Ctrl+Alt+Del. Set during a storyline in which the main character Ethan and his fiancée Lilah are expecting their first child, the strip – presented as a four-panel comic with no dialogue – shows Ethan entering a hospital, where he sees Lilah weeping in a hospital bed; she has suffered a miscarriage. It has received negative reception from critics and webcomic creators and been adapted and parodied many times.[68][69][70][71]
Motu Patlu – An Indian cartoon aired on Nickelodeon (India), made widely popular by a Nick India ad celebrating Teacher's Day in India, which has been reposted under the title "D se Dab".[72]
Nyan Cat – A YouTube video of an animated flying cat, set to an Utau song.[73]
Pusheen – An animated grey tabby cat, originally drawn as a character in the webcomic "Everyday Cute" by artists Clare Belton and Andrew Duff.[77] Belton has since released a Pusheen book.[78]
Rage comics – A large set of pre-drawn images including crudely drawn stick figures, clip art, and other artwork, typically assembled through website generators, to allow anyone to assemble a comic and post to various websites and boards. The New York Times reports that thousands of these are created daily.[79] Typically these are drawn in response to a real-life event that has angered the comic's creator, hence the term "rage comics", but comics assembled for any other purpose are also made. Certain images from rage comics are known by specific titles, such as "trollface" (a widely grinning man), "forever alone" (a man crying to himself), or "rage guy" (a man shouting "FUUUUU...").[citation needed]
Salad Fingers – A Flash animation series surrounding a green man with severely elongated fingers in a desolate world populated mostly by deformed, functionally mute people.[80]
Skibidi Toilet – A series of viral YouTube animations made by animator Alexey Gerasimov using Source Filmmaker which depicts a war between skibidi toilets (disembodied heads inside moving toilets which can be killed by being flushed down) and a faction of people with cameras, TVs and loudspeakers for heads.
The Spirit of Christmas – Consists of two different animated short films made by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, which are precursors to the animated seriesSouth Park. To differentiate between the two homonymous shorts, the first short is often referred to as Jesus vs. Frosty (1992), and the second short as Jesus vs. Santa (1995). Fox executive Brian Graden sent copies of Jesus vs. Santa to several of his friends, and from there it was copied and distributed, including on the internet, where it became one of the first viral videos.[85] They were created by animating construction paper cut-outs with stop motion, and features prototypes of the main characters of South Park.[86]
Steamed Hams – Remixes of a segment of The Simpsons episode "22 Short Films About Springfield" involving Principal Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers, in which Skinner has invited Chalmers over to dinner, inadvertently sets his ham on fire, and covers it up by serving fast food hamburgers as "steamed hams".[87]
"This is fine" – A two-panel comic drawn in 2013 by KC Green as part of the Gunshow webcomic, showing an anthropomorphic dog sitting in a room on fire, and saying "This is fine". The comic emerged as a meme in 2016, used in situations, as described by The New York Times, "halfway between a shrug and complete denial of reality". Numerous derivatives of the "This is fine" comic have been made.[88]
"Tuxedo Winnie the Pooh" – A photoshopped image of Winnie the Pooh sitting in an armchair from the featurette Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, which became popular on Reddit in 2019. The meme, which is also known as "A fellow man of culture", features Winnie the Pooh wearing a tuxedo and smiling.[89][90][91]
Ultra Instinct Shaggy – A character interpretation that the Scooby-Doo character Shaggy is immensely more powerful than he presents himself. The meme is usually presented as still frames of a behind-the-scenes interview of the 2002 live-action movie with subtitles implying that Shaggy is restraining his power to prevent catastrophe.[93][94][95] Subsequently, Warner Bros. canonized the meme as part of a credits gag in the animated film Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms,[96] as well as including Shaggy as a fighter in the MultiVersus crossover fighting game.[97]
Weebl and Bob – A series of Flash cartoons created by Jonti Picking featuring two egg-shaped characters that like pie and speak in a stylistic manner.
xkcd – A webcomic created by Randall Munroe, popularized on the Internet due to a high level of math-, science- and geek-related humor,[98] with certain jokes being reflected in real-life, such as using Wikipedia's "[citation needed]" tag on real world signs[99] or the addition of an audio preview for YouTube comments.[100]
Challenges generally feature Internet users recording themselves performing certain actions, and then distributing the resulting video through social media sites, often inspiring or daring other users to repeat the challenge.
Coffin Dance/Dancing Pallbearers – A group of Ghanaian pallbearers that respectfully dance during funeral processions were covered by the BBC in 2017 and gained some initial Internet popularity.[101] In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a popular TikTok video mashed[jargon] the BBC footage with the EDM song "Astronomia" from Russian artist Tony Igy, creating a meme that appeared to spread as a morbidly humorous reminder about the dangers of COVID-19.[102][103]
Dab – A dance move where a person drops their head into a bent, slanted arm, with the other arm out straight and parallel.
Hampster Dance – A page filled with hamsters dancing, linking to other animated pages. It spawned a fictional band complete with its own CD album release.[106]
Harlem Shake – A video based on Harlem shake dance, originally created by YouTube personality Filthy Frank, and using an electronica version of the song by Baauer. In such videos, one person is dancing or acting strange among a room full of others going about routine business. After the drop in the song and a video cut, everyone starts dancing or acting strangely. The attempts to recreate the dance led to a viral spread on YouTube.[107][108]
"Hit the Quan" – A viral dance challenge to the song "Hit the Quan" by American rapper iLoveMemphis. Rich Homie Quan originally performed this dance in his music video for his song "Flex (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh)". iLoveMemphis produced the "Hit The Quan" based around Rich Homie Quan's dance. iLoveMemphis' song launched the "Hit the Quan" viral dance challenge because of its convenient lyrics to dance to.[109] "Hit the Quan" reached 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart because of the popularity of the dance.[109] The dance challenge was very popular on social media platforms, especially Vine. Many celebrities participated in the popular dance challenge.[110]
"Kiki Challenge" or "#DoThe Shiggy" – A viral dance challenge to the song "In My Feelings" by Drake. This challenge was started by a comedian named Shiggy on the night that Drake released the album Scorpion. Shiggy posted a video of himself on his Instagram account dancing along to part of the lyrics in what looks like in the middle of a neighborhood street.[114] Shiggy commented #DoTheShiggy.[114] Drake claims the success of the song was due to Shiggy's popular dance to his song.[114] The dance challenge is often filmed with a twist of the original. The most popular twist of the dance is filmed from the passenger side of a moving vehicle through the open driver door where the would be driver is dancing moves along with the slowly moving car. This challenge received a lot of controversy due to the fact nobody was in control of the car. Performers have received fines and sometimes suffered injury.[115] This viral dance challenge was performed by a number of professional athletes and celebrities.[114] The dance challenge was performed by people in the U.S. and spread to the rest of the world.[116]
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