Written by Jackson West
Posted Thursday, June 21, 2007 at 9:11 AM PT

 

Hooked on a Meme-ing

How does a meme start? It has less to do with craft and more to do with who you know and where you find them. In this case, some second-degree acquaintance pays attention to CollegeHumor, introduces me third-hand to the “Dramatic Chipmunk” thread — and even though, as Bryan Veloso discovered, it’s a Japanese TV clip of a prarie dog and not a chipmunk, everyone’s already hooked. The CollegeHumor subtitle pretty much nails it: “Best five second video on the internet.”

Nick Douglas (video maker and lifecaster), Veronica Belmont (who makes lots of video for CNET), Drew Olanoff (of Scriggity) and Justine Ezarik (a.k.a. iJustine) have already joined the circus, filming themselves watching the dramatic chipmunk’s fateful head-turn, and fatefully turning their heads too.

Genus rodentia aside, it’s all a little much for this old man to wrap his head around. Not that I didn’t make my own video and upload it to Vimeo. That’s where the cool video kids hang out these days, apparently. But I’m thinking, “I can’t set up three-point lighting, much less a measured zoom or tracking shot, without time, a budget and a crew!” As reactions go, just a tad anachronistic, no?

The point is that you have five seconds to create a single reaction, and the audio track has been created for you, if you can figure out how to download and split it.

Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to the feed

Sphere
Topic: Online Video
« Previous Post Next Post »

Comments & Trackbacks

  1. ben gold dropped me a gchat and said you should check out this link (veronica’s). i did. didn’t have the time for the tracking and all, so i spun it my own way :)

    drew olanoff on June 21st, 2007 at 10:00 am - Permalink
  2. As did I… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WemOK_oh5aw

    Chris Pirillo on June 21st, 2007 at 11:59 am - Permalink
  3. I was telling everyone to make one so I made one too : http://www.vimeo.com/clip:218535

    Ben Gold on June 21st, 2007 at 12:37 pm - Permalink
  4. Some funny stuff here:

    Cheryl on June 22nd, 2007 at 2:14 am - Permalink
  5. Congrats, the Dramatic Chipmunk has already won an Oscar! See that, Peter O’Toole! You could learn a lot from this creature.

    http://www.iklipz.com/MovieDetail.aspx?MovieID=444523f3-56f5-47bc-8401-841b0c186c87

    Gizmo on July 2nd, 2007 at 12:12 pm - Permalink
  6. [...] NewTeeVee trying to wrap their head around how and why a meme takes off as [...]

    Dramatic Chipmunk Meme « SoV-Share of Voice on July 20th, 2007 at 5:54 pm - Permalink

Leave a reply








Safari hates me

If your comment doesn't show up immediately, it may have gotten caught in our trusty (but occasionally overly ambitious) spam filter. Please drop us a note and we'll retrieve it.