Lol, Internet

About

Lol, Internet is a catchphrase used to emphasize that the Internet should not be taken too seriously, similar to the use of The Internet is Serious Business. The phrase was later adopted into an animated GIF series known as "Steam, Steam" on YTMND.

Origin

"LOL Internet" became popular following 4chan's 100,000 GET event on April 19, 2004. As a result, the phrase became a way to mock people taking the internet too seriously.

However, "Lol, Internet" had a more enduring life as a series of YTMND sites depicting a character driving a vehicle with various captions based on the phrasal template "LOL, X." The original YTMND instance that paved the way for the series was uploaded by user Dunkinbean on April 7th, 2005. Titled "Steam, Steam,"^[1] the GIF animation featured a picture of Ronald McDonald driving a convertible car and pointing his finger towards the sky, placed over a motion-blurred background and set to "Running in the 90s" by Italian disco artist Max Coveri. The site has since gained more than 1.1 million views as of May 2012.

Spread

In the following months of 2005, a number of derivative sites soon followed, including "LOL Internet Tiger Handheld,"^[2] "Keep on with the Trucking,"^[3] "LOL Internet 8-Bit"^[4] and "Lawl Internet,"^[5] although none of them received any significant level of exposure. According to YTMND Wiki, the first viral instance of "LOL Internet" didn't arrive until early November that year, when user LordSlack uploaded a Captain Jean-Luc Picard remix titled "Captain Picard's New Ship."^[6] The site has since gained nearly 500,000 views.

The background music "Running in the 90's" was featured on Volume 4^[7] of the YTMND soundtrack; Max Coveri's "Golden Age" and TheEvilTwin's piano cover "Running in the 90's" were included on Volume 10.^[8] Dunkinbean's original "lol internet" site was also included in the YTMND Hall of Fame.^[9]

Notable Examples

• lol internet (1,100,000+ views)
• lol dialup (453,000+ views)
• Captain Picard's New Ship (377,000+ views)
• lol titanic (275,000+ views)
• lol, pilot: Special Edition (250,000+ views)
• LOL, INTERNETWAR!!! (200,000+ views)
• lol myspace (153,000+ views)
• The many lols of YTMND (127,000+ views)
• lol, driveby (125,000+ views)
• lol Ronald McDonald and other people Running In The 90's. (121,000+ views)
• lol windows (115,000+ views)
• lol internet 8-bit (107,000+ views)
• lol, MIDI orchestra (100,000+ views)
• lol, Silent film (98,000+ views)
• lol, bedtime (shhhhh….) (93,000+ views)
• lol, executor (91,000+ views)
• red ranger does the lol (91,000+ views)
• lol scientology (91,000+ views)
• lol cable internet !! (90,000+ views)
• lol, World of Warcraft (89,000+ views)
• LOL, WTF? (89,000+ views)
• lol, rebels (86,000+ views)
• lol, dysentery (80,000+ views)
• lol, stingray. (78,000+ views)
• LOL IRON MAIDEN!!! (77,000+ views)
• lol, mario paint (76,000+ views)
• lol, Bike (74,000+ views)
• lol, Epic … WHERE YOUR GOD NOW ? ? ? (73,000+ views)
• lol, bullet (73,000+ views)
• Punchout stole Ronald's lol (72,000+ views)
• lol, zidane french headbutt (72,000+ views)
• lol, Family Truckster (71,000+ views)
• LOL MARIO PIPES (69,000+ views)
• lol, Ghetto: Redux (66,000+ views)
• LOL, Emo! (64,000+ views)
• lol, matrix (62,000+ views)

Related Memes

Derivative: LOL Collision

"LOL Collision" is a minor spin-off fad showing characters from "lol, internet" sites colliding into each other or into objects, followed by an explosion. Despite the relatively small number of instances, the "LOL Collision" instances were fairly well received by the YTMND community. The first of the series, "LOL Collision"^[10] was created by user davedevil16 on January 1st, 2006.

• LOL Collision: Ronald Hits Picard! (98,000+ views)
• LOL Collision Pt. 2: Ronald, Picard, Bike hit ? (48,000+ views)
• lol, midair collision (46,000+ views)
• LOL Collision: Ronald Unleashes Armageddon (44,000+ views)
• Lol collision hits 88mph goes back to the future and stops Conan (42,000+ views)
• LOL Collision: Ronald hits you (23,000+ views)
• LOL Collision Computer Smash! (20,000+ views)
• LOL Collision: Even Hobo-Cruise Can't Stop It (20,000+ views)
• LOL Collision: Cycle-Riding-Vader vs. Yoshi (15,000+ views)
• LOL Collision: Picard Nukes Ronald (12,000+ views)

Criticism

Although "lol internet" is widely regarded as one of YTMND's most classic fads, its popularity has not been without its criticism. A YTMND tutorial on making "lol, internet" GIF animations was created on August 9th, 2006, allowing previously inexperienced users to suddenly create their own "lol" sites. Due to its perceived overuse by newcomers, the series has been criticized as "lacking good effort, style and decency" and gained notoriety as a "NARV" fad, according to YTMND Wiki.^[11]

Jakob Bienenhalm Cover

In 2007, Jakob Bienenhalm released a Maxi-Single titled "LOL Internet,"^[12] a reference to the YTMND catchphrase. The YouTube version has more than 400,000 views as of May 2012.

YouTube Compilations

Search Interest

Search interest in the keyword "Lol internet"* began picking up momentum in mid-2004, shortly after the GET event on 4chan. The upsurge in searches from late 2005 to late 2006 correlates with that of the YTMND instances around the same time.

External References