Some internet celebrities spend years trying to become famous. Others become famous without asking for it. András Arató belongs to the second group For years, Arató was a Hungarian electrical engineer who worked in lighting technology and built a respected professional career. He was not an actor. He was not a comedian. He was not … Read more
Long before TikTok made ordinary people famous overnight, the internet had its own way of creating stars. There were no sophisticated algorithms pushing videos onto millions of screens. A webcam, a catchy song and a little confidence could be enough One of the earliest people to experience this strange new kind of fame was Gary … Read more
The internet has created countless memes but only a few have become instantly recognizable even years after their peak. The “Ermahgerd” girl is one of them. The image of a young girl with pigtails, a retainer and a stack of Goosebumps books became one of the defining memes of the early 2010s What made the … Read more
In the early days of YouTube, viral fame could come from the most ordinary moments. There were no professional influencers, no carefully planned social media strategies and no huge production teams behind most viral videos. Sometimes all it took was a camera, a funny moment and the right audience In 2009, millions of people watched … Read more
In 2007 the internet was still finding out what it meant to become famous from a bedroom. YouTube was young. Social media was nowhere near as powerful as it is today. Going viral was unusual and often happened without a creator having a business plan or a large production team behind them. Then Chris Crocker … Read more
In the early 2010s, the internet created a new kind of celebrity. People did not always become famous because they were actors, singers or professional entertainers. Sometimes all it took was one photograph and a joke. Laina Morris became one of the most recognizable faces of that era after a simple Justin Bieber parody turned … Read more
The internet has created thousands of memes. Most disappear within a few months. A few become part of online culture forever. Bad Luck Brian is one of those rare memes The image shows a teenage boy with braces, a red face, an awkward smile and an old-fashioned sweater vest. The picture became famous because people … Read more
Long before TikTok stars and Instagram creators became famous overnight, internet memes had already created their own kind of celebrity. One of the most recognizable faces from that early era was a young man in a fur-lined coat and backwards cap standing in a doorway. The internet called him Scumbag Steve. The face belonged to … Read more
If you spent any time on the internet in 2010, there is a good chance you remember Antoine Dodson. His intense television interview about an intruder who entered his family’s home became one of the most recognizable viral moments of the early social media era His warning to the public to “hide yo kids” and … Read more
Few internet videos have captured pure emotion as perfectly as the Double Rainbow video. In January 2010, a bearded man named Paul Vasquez pointed his camera toward the sky near Yosemite National Park and recorded something that would eventually become one of the most recognizable viral videos of the early YouTube era Vasquez was not … Read more