It’s。Viral Market Crash。week on Mashable. Join us as we take stock of the viral economy and investigate how the internet morphed from a fun free-for-all to a bleak hellscape we just can’t quit. 。
It's been over six years since Laina Morris uploaded "JB Fanvideo" to YouTube. 。
The clip, which shows Morris performing a parody version of Justin Bieber's 2012 song "Boyfriend," was originally intended as an attempt to win an online contest. (Bieber, who was launching a new fragrance called "Girlfriend," had invited fans to submit their best riffs on his track.) 。
Morris didn't win the contest, but that's beside the point. No one remembers who won the contest. Instead, Redditor yeahhtoast posted a screenshot and a link to her video to Reddit, where it quickly blew up. "I posted the video the night of June 6th, 2012 and realized it was getting a lot of attention before I went to bed that night," Morris said in an interview. "I stayed up late with one of my roommates reading comments on YouTube and Reddit." 。
SEE ALSO:How one company reshaped — and kind of ruined — the viral video landscape 。Thus, a meme was born, one that you're almost certainly familiar with: Overly Attached Girlfriend.。
The Overly Attached Girlfriend character is a stereotypically clingy girl, obsessed with knowing what her boyfriend (at least, her perceived boyfriend) is up to. Morris's lyrics -- "If I was your girlfriend / I wouldn't let you leave / without a small recording device / taped under your sleeve" -- are hyperbolic and goofy, but it's her enormous, I'm-watching-you eyes that catapulted the video to internet fame. 。
CARD ID: 375368, CARD TYPE: Imgur。
Thanks for signing up! 。
Even today, Morris's face is instantly recognizable to anyone who's spent time online. And people still approach her in public occasionally. 。
People still approach her in public occasionally. 。
"It definitely happened a lot more in the beginning, but it does still happen every now and then," Morris said. In fact, she explained, "a very sweet couple just came over and offered to buy my coffee and asked for a picture." 。SEE ALSO:Remembering Advice Animals, one of the internet's first viral memes 。
Overly Attached Girlfriend is the perfect emblem of the 2012 internet landscape, where parody videos and zany personae reigned supreme. Luckily, that online environment dovetailed perfectly with Laina's interests: parodying songs and creating characters. 。
Add a catchy, already-famous pop song, a strong visual, and a third-party memeification, and it's easy to see why Morris went viral. After all, we were all still enjoying the fun version of the internet. 。
But would Overly Attached Girlfriend go viral today? Probably not. For one thing, the internet has largely moved past both image macros and larger-than-life, Ermergerd-era personalities -- trends to which the OAG meme can attribute much of its success. YouTube is more "ethical panic zone" than "fun and democratic playground" these days. And the slightly problematic OAG character -- that of a woman hysterically obsessed with a man -- would probably not make it past the 2018 Twitter gates. Nor should it. 。
"I just feel like the internet is a different place today than it was six years ago." 。
"I've thought about [whether it would go viral again] before," Morris said, "and if I had to guess, I don't think it would. I just feel like the internet is a different place today than it was six years ago." 。 She does, however, appear admirably chill about her brush with viral fame. Despite a successful YouTube channel, numerous television appearances, and a host of fans who love。all 。
all 。
her work, Morris is still known primarily for being the Overly Attached Girlfriend. And she doesn't mind at all. 。
Featured Video For You 。
(责任编辑：綜合)
Fake news reports from the Newseum are infinitely better than actual news
Nature to greet People's Climate March with record heat
Barbershop Books is using barbershops to inspire young black boys to read
You can make your Samsung Galaxy S8 transparent, but there's a catch
You will love/hate Cards Against Humanity's new fortune cookiesCat gets stuck in the most awkward position ever
Anyone with a cat can tell you that although their cat's claws are impressive scratching and hunting
...[详细]'Game of Thrones' got some bad reviews back in the day, gets the last laugh
Game of Throneshas certainly polarized fans over its six (soon-to-be-seven) seasons, a tradition dat
...[详细]You can make your Samsung Galaxy S8 transparent, but there's a catch
When it comes to the gadgets we use the most, sometimes a little extra transparency can go a long wa
...[详细]
Canada's Kobo, one of the few companies besides Amazon that have a healthy lineup of e-readers, has
...[详细]This app is giving streaming TV news a second try
Watchup, the once-buzzy news video streaming service, is trying its hand again at the news game with
...[详细]Unroll.me's shadiness is exactly why people don't trust tech companies
When The New York Timesreported the popular inbox-cleaning app Unroll.me was providing anonymized us
...[详细]Yes, you can now pleasure yourself for a good cause
Happy National Masturbation Month! Perhaps you'd like to celebrate by pleasuring yourself...for char
...[详细]Cypress Hill and the London Symphony Orchestra seem to be collaborating IRL
Thanks to the internet, the wildest dreams of The Simpsonsfans may come true.It seems the London Sym
...[详细]Here's what 'Game of Thrones' actors get up to between takes
Warning: Contains some mild Season 6 spoilers right at the end (the video is spoiler-free). 。LONDON -
...[详细]Stock trading app Robinhood raises $110 million to become the latest unicorn
Zero-fee stock trading app Robinhood is getting a boost from its own investors.The financial tech co
...[详细]There's a big piece of fake chicken stuck to this phone case
Frog scares the crap out of dog and 2 humans, doggo goes back for toy
SEE ALSO:How one company reshaped — and kind of ruined — the viral video landscape 。