Salon.com > internet meme

John Mayer offers up “Paper Doll” as your new Prancercise jam

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:54:00 +0000

John Mayer, attempting to capitalize on the "Prancercise" phenomenon that's swept the Internet, has released a new music video in which lithe Prancercise guru Joanna Rohrback glides along to his new jam, "Paper Doll."

If you haven't seen Joanna Rohrback's original workout video before, Mayer's video seems random and absurdist, a throwback to Fatboy Slim's "Praise You" or "Weapon of Choice" music videos. But if you are already familiar with the greatness that is Prancercise, it feels more like total bro John Mayer is superficially attaching himself to an Internet meme, which is kind of lame.

The trying-too-hard-to-be-funny video becomes lamer still when you realize that "Paper Doll" is most likely an outright diss to former flame Taylor Swift, whose tendency to overshare in her lyrics have already spawned jokes, Twitter parody accounts and Internet memes ad absurdum. Prancercise, you are much, much better without John Mayer:

Grumpy Cat gets a movie deal

Thu, 30 May 2013 13:47:00 +0000

Grumpy Cat is coming to a big screen near you, though she is probably not too happy about it.

Tardar Sauce, a mixed breed owned by Arizona resident Tabatha Budnesen, became an Internet sensation September 2012 after a photo Budnesen's brother posted of the unimpressed cat to Reddit. Since then, Grumpy Cat has garnered Internet fame, starred in a documentary and won a Meme of the Year Award.

Now, she is getting a movie.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Ben Lashes, a talent agent specifically for Internet-famous cats, has also brokered book and beverage deals for Grumpy Cat:

Mean Mad Men Tumblr shows that admen are all mean girls at heart

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 21:35:00 +0000

The Internet loves a good Tumblr mashup. Taylor Pearce has delivered us another one, pairing quotes from the Tina Fey movie "Mean Girls" with a show that has almost nothing similar, "Mad Men."

Pearce explains on the Burn Book of the Tumblr, Mean Mad Men:

After seeing Mean Girls, Girl World was forever changed: consoling someone when they were sick was replaced with “boo you whore,” fabulous was switched with “fetch,” and girls grabbed their boobs when there was a “30% chance it’s already raining.”

Then AMC decided to grace the earth with Mad Men and suddenly I found myself wondering WWJD- “What would Joan do?,” questioning if it’s ever too early to drink if you’re on Roger time, and daydreaming about whether I would have caught Don’s wandering eye.

In the end, if you’ve ever quoted Mean Girls, or cried during Mad Men*, you’re in the right place.

Credit for all images to Taylor Pearce's Tumblr, Mean Mad Men.

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Jon Hamm: Quit joking about my junk!

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:10:00 +0000

Jon Hamm is tired of stories about Jon Hamm's Hamm. In a preview of next month's Rolling Stone profile, the "Mad Men" actor addresses the undue attention that his penis has received from the media. "Most of it's tongue-in-cheek," he told contributing editor Josh Eells. "But it is a little rude. It just speaks to a broader freedom that people feel like they have - a prurience."

The "prurient" media has enjoyed speculating the size of Hamm's penis for several years, egged on by the knowledge that the actor often goes commando under seemingly clingy pants. But after a particularly revealing photo of Hamm and girlfriend Jennifer Westfeldt walking down Madison Avenue went viral last year, Hamm's distinctive bulge became a full-fledged Internet meme. In response to the photo, a "Mad Men" insider told the Huffington Post: “He doesn’t know this, but we used to have to airbrush it out of pics sometimes," adding, “Jon is a big boy but sometimes it can be distracting.”

The short, strange life of an original viral star

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 19:52:00 +0000

Today, we live in a world where wedding proposals are elaborate productions, tantrums aren't discouraged but disseminated, and there's always a danger of a flash mob breaking out. But back in 2006, when YouTube was still relatively new, one Renaissance man helped define the term "viral star." But when Aleksey Vayner died of unknown causes in New York last Saturday, he was a man who defined his moment of notoriety as "rock bottom," a man who just last year changed his name to avoid association with the one that had briefly made him famous. A man claiming to be a relative told Gawker, "It looks like he took some drugs or medicine, had a heart attack, a friend of his drove him to the hospital, and they couldn't resuscitate him."

Producers on making “Taken 3″: “We’ve taken everyone we can take”

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 16:19:00 +0000

After the massive, unexpected box office success of Liam Neeson action thriller "Taken 2," producer Luc Besson and writer Robert Mark Kamen implied that they might ride out the franchise's success a little longer: "We didn't start talking about [Taken 3] until we saw the numbers," said Kamen. "But then we said, 'Oh, okay. I think we should do a third one.' And Fox wants us to do a third one."

Hollywood.com writes:

In the first "Taken," Neeson's character Bryan Mills' daughter was taken. In "Taken 2," he and his wife were taken. In "Taken 3"…. "We've taken everyone we can take — it's going to go in another direction. Should be interesting."

Liam Neeson realizes the comedy inherent in any "Taken 3": "How many times can she be taken?" he asked a few weeks ago. "I mean, it’s bad parenthood, really, after that."