Tuesdays with Tom: The Strangest Viral Trends in Internet History
Revisiting some of the most bizarre viral Internet trends; plus thoughts an important birthday, "We Are the World", Curb Your Enthusiasm, a sports TV bundle and an epically bad TV finale
By nature, social media is designed to comment and react to things happening in the moment. Trends come and go. Some of them are indicators of permanent shifts in human behavior. Others are fleeting and peculiar in retrospect. With the speed of information in 2024, there’s not much time to revisit some of those short-lived viral trends. But I’ve taken it upon myself to do a quick history lesson of a handful of the most memorable, short-lived trends in social media history. You may recall them. Maybe you were even a part of them. Either way, I’ve gathered these ones together for your eager eyes.
The Harlem Shake
Concept: In May 2012, American trap DJ Bauuer released a song called “Harlem Shake” with little fanfare. In February 2013, the song gained a viral following after several YouTubers posted videos featuring the first 30 seconds of the song. In each video, a few people would appear in a setting doing very little until the song’s notable bass drop. Suddenly, many more people would emerge into the frame after a jump cut, often wearing silly and unexpected outfits, while flailing their bodies around to the beat of the song.
Reaction: “Harlem Shake” became the No. 1 song in the Billboard Top 100 for five straight weeks thanks to the widespread popularity of the videos inspired by the song. Gaggles of famous people made their own versions including the Miami Heat and the Backstreet Boys. The song was so commercially successful that it required retroactive copyright obtainment for Bauuer’s record label.
Impact: The Harlem Shake meme had no connection with the hip-hop dance of the same name -- a fact that was lost on almost everyone in 2013. The dearth of Harlem Shake videos was one of the biggest pop culture items of the year. Baauer never built off the success of “Harlem Shake”, but it was an instant addition to the one-hit wonder category.
Legacy: If you ask someone to “do the Harlem Shake” in 2024, the most you’ll receive is an amused laughing acknowledgement. That’s not much of a legacy, but at least there’s a few who still remember Bauuer’s bizarre hit trap song and this trend.
The Ice Bucket Challenge
Concept: In the summer of 2014, the Ice Bucket Challenge arrived. Each video featured a person dumping a bucket of ice cold water over themselves and then nominating someone to do the same in a new video. The purpose of this bone-chilling act was to raise money for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, and the connected charity organizations charged with raising awareness and donations to fight the deadly disease. Nominated people had the choice of either creating their own video or making a donation.
Reaction: Millions of people both ordinary and famous did the Ice Bucket Challenge. The premise played into several common themes of viral content culture. It was a competitive dare, attached with peer pressure and drew attention to the person doing the challenge and the charitable causes of ALS. Even I did this one, but I’ll confess that it was only as a satirical bit (to be fair, I did make a donation afterwards).
Impact: This was one of the rare viral trends that made a real impact on its desired goals. The Ice Bucket Challenge led to over $220 million in donations to The ALS Association in America and others globally. It dramatically raised awareness about the nature of the disease and served as a positive example of how to leverage the platforms of social media in a productive way.
Legacy: The Ice Bucket Challenge was the best of both worlds. It was a charity-driven content farm that created many fun videos and actually made a difference in raising awareness and money for ALS and ALS research. There weren’t a lot of bad actors participating in the trend and it was something that benefited everyone involved.
Flash Mobs
Concept: If you’ve ever been in a public place where strangers randomly break into song and dance, you’ve likely witnessed a flash mob. These were all the rage in the late 2000s and early 2010s and occasionally would pop up somewhere unexpected.
Reaction: The first time I saw a flash mob was on a walk back from class as a college student. I don’t remember what it was for, but I do remember being annoyed at the disruption. That sums up most flash mobs. It remains very funny to me that these were presented as an impromptu source of inspiration when it was clearly rehearsed.
Impact: Groups of humans breaking out into “spontaneous” choreography is ridiculous at face value and only makes some sense in the context of a musical. In the real world, it’s cringey and strange to watch and only serves the purpose of giving the dancers attention.
Legacy: You don’t see flash mobs anymore and it’s probably for the best. It was a craze that came and went in a…oh you know!
Kony 2012
Concept: Kony 2012 is a YouTube documentary released on March 5, 2012. It was produced by Invisible Children, an organization dedicated to driving awareness to the Lord’s Resistance Army in Central Africa. It focused on the horrors of African terrorist Joseph Kony’s recruitment of child soldiers for his military uprising in countries like Uganda. The charity and film aimed to raise money and government support to arrest Kony for his crimes. The 30-minute film introduced many to the conflict and implored viewers to share it on social media with the goal of apprehending Kony by the end of 2012.
Reaction: Invisible Children was founded in 2004, but the documentary created massive newfound exposure to the charity group. At the time, it was the most liked and viewed video on YouTube, the first to ever reach 1 million likes. Kony 2012 garnered support from several celebrities and government officials in addition to the millions of young Americans who shared the film on social media. It was a bonafide Internet sensation.
Impact: After the film’s release, the African Union sent 5,000 military troops to find Kony and a handful United States senators announced a resolution publicly condemning him. However, the film was criticized for oversimplifying the situation and misleading viewers about Kony’s foothold and whereabouts. Kony’s army had diminished to only a few hundred followers with little remaining power in 2012. A follow-up to the film, Kony 2012: Part II – Beyond Famous, attempted to address those criticisms, but failed to replicate the viral impact of Kony 2012. It didn’t help that Invisible’s Children’s founder, Jason Russell, was detained by police for stripping naked in public during a mental breakdown less than two weeks after the film blew up online. Basically, it was too little too late to do anything significant about Kony’s crimes.
Legacy: Kony 2012 created incredible engagement for a noble pursuit. But ultimately, it was a classic case of “slacktivism” in the Internet era, when people are asked to do very little for a cause without committing to meaningful action. A quick Facebook like or share was the only action item and most viewers didn’t question the claims made in the film. It’s 2024 and Joseph Kony is still alive and at large.
Chernobyl Selfies
Concept: In 2019, HBO’s limited series Chernobyl reignited interest in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986. The show’s popularity led to a surge in tourism to Pripyat, where the remains of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant reside. This resurgence created a swath of people taking dramatic selfies near the Chernobyl disaster zone.
Reaction: Chernobyl showrunner Craig Mazin cautioned against visiting Chernobyl. There are anywhere from 9,000 to 93,000 deaths linked to Chernobyl and over 5,000 people contracted thyroid cancer from Chernobyl area exposure. The people who took these selfies were appropriately criticized for putting themselves in danger and disrespecting the tragedy by using it as a backdrop for Instagram.
Impact: The rise of morbid tourism at tragedy sites like Chernobyl raises a lot of questions. It’s one thing to want to visit a tragic location for educational or moral purposes. But taking a selfie at one and sharing it is highly questionable (at best). And in the case of Chernobyl, the risk of exposure to radiation made the shameless photo chase one that endangered people’s health.
Legacy: The Chernobyl selfies were not the first time clout chasing social media users used a tragedy as a platform for their own narcissistic point of view. But they might be the most idiotic of that bunch, which is remarkable since this has been done at Auschwitz. Shocking numbers of people have risked and lost their lives for a photo opportunity. But the Chernobyl selfie doubles down on that stupidity by being callous of the victims of that disaster. If you’re willing to die over a selfie, you arguably deserve to.
The Mannequin Challenge
Concept: Our last trend that involves a random thing attached to a catchy song features the song “Black Beatles” - written by hip hop artist Rae Sremmurd and featuring rapper Gucci Mane. The song inspired a Jacksonville high school to create a video where everyone stood frozen in place like mannequins in a department store and in turn many others to create their own #MannequinChallenge.
Reaction: No one knows what standing as still as a mannequin has to do with “Black Beatles”, but the Mannequin Challenge quickly became a viral trend. Once again, celebrities and professional athletes alike were happy to do their own Mannequin Challenges and share them online.
Impact: “Black Beatles” peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 100 charts in 2016 and it is one of the biggest songs of Rae Sremmurd and Gucci Mane’s careers. As for the Mannequin Challenge, it didn’t live beyond 2016 and meant nothing unless you were one of the copycats trying to go viral with your own version.
Legacy: If we’ve learned anything about trends like the Harlem Shake, the Ice Bucket Challenge and the Mannequin Challenge, it’s that people will do just about anything if it's popular, low risk and has the potential to boost their follower count. The Mannequin Challenge didn’t hurt anyone, but it also didn’t really do anything unique or different from its predecessors in the viral trend category.
Storm Area 51
Concept: In June 2019, Bakersfield resident Matty Roberts created a joke Facebook event called “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” inviting anyone to Rachel, Nevada, the 54-resident town near the entrance of Area 51. The event’s start time was 3 am on September 20 and the stated goal was to “all meet up at the Area 51 Alien Center tourist attraction and coordinate our entry.” The delightful absurdity was a big hit on the Internet as many believe that the government is harboring alien technology and research at the classified Air Force facility.
Reaction: Despite Storm Area 51’s obvious joking intent, over 2 million people said they were “going” on Facebook. Roberts was forced to clarify that he didn’t really plan to storm the military base, but the FBI still came to his house to investigate. Residents of Rachel became concerned about the potential of thousands showing up to their tiny town. Speculation about what would happen on September 20 grew as it became certain that some of the millions who interacted with the Facebook event would follow through with a visit.
Impact: It was rumored that 30,000 people would show up to Rachel for the raid. But according to a spokesperson, about 6,000 made it on September 20. A haphazardly planned music festival called Alien-Stock was held for anyone who visited the town, though only one band of the 20 listed performed. Another copycat music festival popped up in Hiko, Nevada. The end result was a scatter-shot attempt at throwing disconnected parties. Roberts eventually bailed on the entire operation in favor of a Las Vegas alien-themed party 160 miles away from Rachel.
Legacy: No one ever attempted to break into Area 51 on that day. But Storm Area 51 has a strong case as the most successful shitpost in Internet history. It turned a meme joke into something real and dominated discourse for several months online. Those who made the considerable effort of showing up to rural Nevada did not leave empty-handed. In the years since this event, the government has openly acknowledged several UFO sightings and fascination with Area 51 remains as vibrant as ever.
Challenge Accepted
Concept: In July 2020, the hashtag #ChallengeAccepted gained significant traction on Instagram. It called for women to share black and white filtered selfies, claiming that doing so was empowering to other women, and to nominate another woman to do the same. The trend’s origins were not clear, with some citing women in Turkey as the source and others pointing to a brief 2016 movement about cancer awareness. But the 2020 iteration caught on with millions of women and got the celebrity endorsement stamp in a big way.
Reaction: What exactly was the challenge of Challenge Accepted? If it was daring women to share flattering selfies, mission accomplished. These types of vague social movements are popular because they “allow users to feel as if they’re taking a stand while saying almost nothing.” Critics of Challenge Accepted were shamed for pointing out the fuzzy agenda and blamed for allegedly not supporting women by critiquing the movement.
Impact: Many of us have some regrets about the COVID-era social media trends that we felt pressured to participate in. Challenge Accepted wasn’t as tone deaf as the “Imagine” celebrity sing-a-long or as guilt-trippy and reactionary as the black square posts. But frankly, it is quite a stretch to say that posting a black and white selfie does anything to empower women.
Legacy: Challenge Accepted was an ideal viral social media cause for Instagram and virtue signaling culture. It was vaguely positive, without much commitment required and didn’t risk being divisive as a topic. But with unclear motives, Challenge Accepted was a thinly veiled excuse for women to share cute selfies while avoiding the typical judgment that comes with most filtered posts.
Tom’s Thoughts of the Week
In the last two episodes of Friday Night Beers, Vince and I drank Helles Lager and Heineken. Helles Lager is from one of the nation’s only Black-owned American breweries and its local one based in Chicago. They have a very cool story and we got into the nature of low maintenance TV pleasures. Everyone knows what Heineken is, but you might be surprised to learn that their founder was once kidnapped in the 1980s. That sparked a long chat about the best kidnapping stories and we touched on on Heineken’s connection with the James Bond franchise. Please subscribe, rate and review our podcast here and follow our Instagram page for relevant updates!
Today is my dad’s birthday and since he’s a loyal reader, I wanted to make it known and say Happy Birthday to the old man. He’s obviously been one of my biggest fans since the beginning and I literally would not be here without him. Enjoy your Jack Ham year and thanks for being the greatest dad ever.
Speaking of people who thrived in the 1980s, there’s a fun documentary on Netflix about the recording of “We Are the World” in 1985. Depending on your age, you might be unfamiliar with the charity-driven song that generated millions of dollars to provide famine relief in Ethiopia. The documentary has an audacious title, but there’s no question that “We Are the World” is one of the most notable moments in American music history. As The Greatest Night in Pop makes quite clear, the stunningly rare confluence of events that transpired to make this possible is one worth going long on. The concept was inspired by singer Harry Belafonte, who saw the success of Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and wanted to make an American version focused on world hunger. From there, he got in touch with music manager Ken Kragen and he enlisted Lionel Richie to lead the charge. Richie co-wrote the music with Michael Jackson (with some help from Stevie Wonder) and with those three involved, a swarm of other massive music stars began committing to the cause. It’s difficult to fathom a collection of famous hitmakers this large standing together in one room to record one song simultaneously. I had never heard the song in full nor watched the music video before this. I got the chills multiple times at the never-ending reveal of another mega-famous musician singing a line. As someone who wasn’t around for this, I was incredibly engaged to see it all unfold. The song itself is fine and it served a much grander purpose beyond trying to be good pop song. The main draw of the film is watching the musicians, most of them at the absolute peak of their careers, interacting and humbling themselves to work together. There’s several mind-blowing anecdotes told throughout the film. I can’t imagine this type of thing happening today and readers who were alive to experience this will likely enjoy the trip down 1985 memory lane.
It took less than five minutes for the Curb Your Enthusiasm final season premiere to make me crack up laughing uncontrollably. The beloved HBO series is back for its supposedly final run and I’m savoring every moment of it. There is likely nothing on television that’s been as consistently funny in the last 25 years as Curb. It’s amazing that this show is still as fresh as ever and 76-year-old star and creator Larry David continues to find hilarious ways to tackle modern topics. It seems that they are serious this time when they are saying this is really it. But I won’t complain if they change their mind again.
For years, the unraveling of the cable bundle was widely celebrated as a positive development. TV viewers were delighted at the prospect of reduced bills and untethering themselves from undesirable channels. But today, standalone streaming has become so expensive and convoluted that suddenly the bundled cable package doesn’t seem so appalling. This was made even more ironic with the shocking announcement that ESPN, Fox and Warner Brothers are teaming up to offer a sports-focused bundled streaming service that combines all of their sports channels into one, clean package. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before! The “I only care about sports” crowd has clung to cable because it has always been the only place that features every channel they need. In theory, this could be enough for some to finally jump off the cable bandwagon. However, there’s some crucial points to consider here. This option doesn’t include CBS or NBC programs, who have their own streaming services that feature sports today. Those are both NFL partners and inherently that will be a challenge for convincing fans to go all-in on this unnamed product. Additionally, the rumored price point is going to be between $45 and $50 per month. That’s only $20 cheaper than YouTube TV, Hulu Live and most cable offerings. If you have those already, you are already paying the extra $20 to have access to CBS, NBC and most local sports networks. If the point of this is to give you everything in one deal, it doesn’t offer that and it’s not that much cheaper. It’s noteworthy that Fox has made no real attempt as going direct-to-consumer for their sports programs and Warner Brothers’ Max has only dipped their toe into it with the Bleacher Report package. ESPN is even more confusing about their strategy. They’re still planning to offer something standalone in addition to this and ESPN+ already exists. Ultimately, this feels like a desperate Hail Mary attempt from three competitors who don’t really know what to do with this space. It will also infuriate the cable operators like Comcast and Spectrum who made them rich and will be threatened by this option. I’m skeptical about this whole thing, but we’ll see how people react if it hits the market next fall as projected.
Remember when I said that True Detective: Night Country was off to a strong start? And that the show borrowing elements from the wildly popular first season was a good thing? Okay. I want you to forget all that. I’m here to inform you that I was totally FOOLED. The final stretch of this season was incomprehensibly stupid and did a horrific job explaining the mysteries that it deliberately played up. All of those callbacks to season one? They didn’t matter! It was all a distraction for a story that gradually made less and less sense. The fate of one of its two main characters? Absolutely unclear! But the greatest sin was committed in the season finale: a 75-minute fart noise that revealed its whodunit in just about the most hilarious way imaginable. Bonus points for the groan-worthy moment where a character we’ve barely spent time with randomly quoted Matthew McConaughey’s iconic line from the first season and might as well have winked at the camera. If showrunner Issa López wanted audiences to laugh out loud in the final minutes of her show, congratulations to her! I have said for over a decade that the Dexter series finale is the worst TV finale I’ve seen. I might have to make room on that ignominious mantle for this one. I’ll never forget it and it’s time to take the dead horse that is the True Detective franchise to the glue factory.