Serious Internet Fame

[Dr. Percival Cox]

Chris Krocker (probably spelled it wrong, don't care), Perez Hilton, James Rolfe. These are only a few people who have become "famous" through the internet. While it could be said that not all people who get famous through the internet are annoying, a large majority of them are. It used to be that to become an actor or a "celebrity", you would have to go out to acting auditions or present screenplays to large companies to gain finance to make films. Now, all it takes is a shit load of free time and an phone line to upload a film onto the web. And what really bugs me is that some of them don't even take the time to be creative to make attempts at fame. Dorian Thorn for example. Takes numerous pictures of himself doing...very wrong things to himself and posts it on the internet. Perez Hilton, someone bullshit "critic" who couldn't make it as an actor so he takes it out on people in the entertainment business who actually have talent. And then you have Krocker who is some attention whore who believed himself to be important because he had so many friends on MySpace. And then when he realized that he wasn't as big and famous as he thought, he posted a video of himself on the internet bitching about the current amount of hatred towards Britney Spears. These people have become everyday names (although not so much anymore as these are considered "Old Memes") on the internet.

As I said before, however, some of them can be decent. I personally find James Rolfe, aka. Angry Video Game Nerd, to be funny. But he atleast had the good will to create his own website. LegendaryFrog can be funny (despite not having made a video in years).

And then we have the topic of YouTube Celebrities. These people create videos of themselves and using their abilites that would be better used at clubs performing their music and comedy but instead spend their time in their house with their webcam. It goes to show that even complete introverts can be attention whores. Granted, some of them are actually talented. Mystery Guitar Man for one (although, he doesn't really play guitar that often anymore). But, nevertheless, it does bother me.

Well, there's my rant. What are your opinions?

 

[Valvalis]

Hmm The thing is, I haven't actually heard of any of these people, which supports my theory--that despite the ease of broadcasting yourself to the world online, internet fame is really not going to get you *that* much more famous than participation in any other forms of media. If someone has actual talent with something, they might get really far and become famous for years; however, if they're just a quirky flash in the pan, they might circulate around to people who are frequent users of the internet for a while, but then fizzle out over time and be forgotten. I suppose it could be compared to street performers in someplace like New York City--anyone could sit out on a corner and play covers on a guitar, and he or she might become something of a character or a spectacle over time. And if he or she is really good, they might get recognized by someone looking to sign new musicians to a record label. However, if they're not any good, they'll merely turn out like any of these online "celebrities" and fade with time.

And as far as the annoying ones...well, the best way to get rid of them is to ignore them, so I just try to do that whenever possible

 

[Ewan]

People who become famous through ways other than the internet aren't any more talented. Most celebrities don't have much talent at all IMO. You don't have to be original and all you need is the right look and mediocre ability.

Who cares if they became famous on the internet anyway? Like I already said, it's not like "real" celebrities are any more talented. Acting and making music aren't intrinsically better than making videos for YouTube. It's all about demand and no one would become famous on the internet if people didn't want what they offered.

There isn't a "wrong" way to become famous. For example, if loads of people wanted to watch me do some mundane task and I became famous for it, there really isn't anything wrong with that. You could get pissed off but it's someone else's choice if they want to watch it etc.

Basically what I'm saying is that fame shouldn't just be reserved for talent. It rarely is IMO anyway.

 

[Mr.Sark]

What it tells us about our generation, is that humanity should have been extinct by now....
But seriously, there have allways been untallented morons getting famous for no reason, even before the internet.
The problem is, that nowadays everyone can make a video an post it and many do. That creates just a to big amount of stuff, so the really tallented and maybe less tenacious are ignored.
But there are people who got attention on the net who deserve it, like Jon LaJoie who I think is really funny or Rémi Gaillard whose "Put it where you want it" video is just plain awesome

As for the likes of Perez Hilton, just ignore them. One day their fame will dimish and they'll get depressed, fat(ter) and od oon something, the problem of those types of celebs usually solves itself.^^

 

[Tmoo]

on the internet, you are either famous by advertisement, by being a cult leader, or by pissing off the wrong people, it's that simple. Name any internet celebrity and they will have at least one of these traits.

It goes to show that even complete introverts can be attention whores

not so. you aren't an introvert if you're willing to expose your face to the cesspool that is the internet. assuming we're using the (outdated yet common)* definition of introvert that says they don't like socializing, a true introvert would never in their right minds do such a thing.

*the true definition of an introvert is one who is tired out in the company of other people. likewise, an extrovert is one who is energized by the company of others. an introvert will excuse himself every once in a while to be alone so he/she can rest and recoup some stamina before heading back into the fray. an extrovert would follow any and every crowd possible because they're energized by interaction with others, and hate being alone.

sources: http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&source=hp&q=introvert+extrovert&btnG=Google+Search

 

[Ayumi Hamasaki]

Personally, I have little problem with it.

I mean, honestly, is it any different than auditioning? For every person who gets famous because of the Internet, there's a dozen who didn't. I mean, the Internet is just another means to and end, isn't it? It doesn't make them any more or less talented.

 

[Shu]

Let me break topic for a second, and then I'll hit back on the original. Let's take today's entertainment for example. Do you consider the folks in the lime light, more or less talented?

I think entertainment these days is when someone exploits themselves to either do something ridiculously awful (show a tit, kiss a girl if they are a girl, kiss a guy if you are a guy, basically anything sexual on stage), or dress the most outrageous while singing with "okay" talent, but crappy lyrics... IE: Lady Gaga, She has a good voice, but she sings crap songs, just like Beyonce these days, both have decent voices.

Lady Gaga puts things out there to make you go... Woah that's so wrong, and so therefore it's called Taboo in the media eye, making everyone go... Woah, that's... interesting.. and now they are saying... woah that's cool a bunch of Gay Nazi's or Lady Gaga swallowing a Roserey (the song alejandro)

The only reason Lady Gaga admitted to being a hermaphrodite whether it's true or not, it was basically to get some more exposure. Just like how Katy Perry sang about kissing a girl, and dressing like a girl who's been porked 5 times from Sunday and has Aids and the clap.

So how does this tie into Internet Fame? Well look at Fred for example or Justin Beiber. They were Youtube sensations in the entertainment business. Both suck at what they do, even if Justin has a pre-teen voice that can carry a tune, he will lose it when he hits puberty, or he'll get acne. As far as Fred, Fred came up with a fake persona in which displayed him as a 6 year old when he was actually 15 in person. He used a voice aid that basically sped up his voice to make it seem like a really high helium voice.. and guess what? He made thousands of dollars off of these skits. Why? Because of the people that watched him. He exploited the teenage group who didn't like to use a brain and thought that half-wit humor was funny, and he used subscriber bots in order to attain his status. When you are top 10 subscriber on youtube and you are the age of 15, people call you on to talk shows apparently.

As for other internet sensations, they are the same as our normal entertainment. Most are awful 93% and the other 7% actually bust their ass at learning how to play an instrument, dance a certain way, do monologues, stuff that takes true talent and doesn't take a T-pain voice over to emulate.

Notice how Rock and Rap have taken a beating these past 4 years? When's the last good song where you saw a music video for as well on top 10..

Also why is "mature" music all the sudden a black ball material? Notice how Tool, Mudvayne, 5 finger death punch, Deftones, Slipknot... list goes on, notice how these never get air time as much anymore. Also where are the videos? The freakin FCC is the cause of this, even if people want to see them, they want to censor most folks from actually being able to think outside the box. Instead of listening to the same radio friendly horse crap in today's generation. Screw conformity people when has conformity in media/music ever inspired creativity?

Same with Movies, everything is starting to look the same.. with all the explosions, the lack of depth in the plots.. What happened to your deep thinking "what if" movies. Meh, people are scared to not sell their stuff, they want the bang for their dollar so they exploit themselves as much as possible in order to get a record deal, or their movie covered by an agent.

So that's how these folks are using the internet. Normal Vlogs, I don't mind.. but when folks create fake personas and get famous from them, they better have some talent in them, unlike ".... IT'S FREEEEEEEDDDD"

I'll end this on a not so Angsty reply... Jon Lajoie says it right..

 

[Rydia]

I don't see a problem with internet fame. I watch James Rolfe aka the Angry Video Game Nerd and Doug Walker aka the Nostalgia Critic because I think they are both very funny.

Considering what is popular right now, I don't think it takes away from anyone's talent in hollywood. Just look at all those Disney stars... Or reality TV. If people want to watch other people do incredibly stupid things, then let them.

 

[Shu]

I don't see a problem with internet fame. I watch James Rolfe aka the Angry Video Game Nerd and Doug Walker aka the Nostalgia Critic because I think they are both very funny.

Considering what is popular right now, I don't think it takes away from anyone's talent in hollywood. Just look at all those Disney stars... Or reality TV. If people want to watch other people do incredibly stupid things, then let them.

I think we are the same page, there are some talented folks out there on the "interwebs" but the thing I'm getting at though is when the market is flooded with the crappy stuff, due to the amount of cash pumped into it. You can't see the good games sometimes because of the Amount of Call of duty Modern Warfare 2 videos there are on the market. When I think of Games Category and top rated, I think I'm about to see some original stuff, but instead I see 20 of the same videos from the same game.

If a good game was to come out and a review of it was on top 10 rated ign, you would have no clue youtube though, because the same folks keep getting their stuff bumped up due to they have come speech skills, as well as look good to the audience and not some ugly chut.

James Rolfe is hilarious, but he's unique. He is able to take a game and either completely hate it or love it, but he is good about nailing why, not just stating it's obviously bad. And I don't believe I've ever seen James Rolfe on a TV show.

What I'm talking about is Top Rated/Most Comments - most of this is done due to bots or just folks who adore one genre.

 

[Rydia]

I think we are the same page, there are some talented folks out there on the "interwebs" but the thing I'm getting at though is when the market is flooded with the crappy stuff, due to the amount of cash pumped into it. You can't see the good games sometimes because of the Amount of Call of duty Modern Warfare 2 videos there are on the market. When I think of Games Category and top rated, I think I'm about to see some original stuff, but instead I see 20 of the same videos from the same game.

If a good game was to come out and a review of it was on top 10 rated ign, you would have no clue youtube though, because the same folks keep getting their stuff bumped up due to they have come speech skills, as well as look good to the audience and not some ugly chut.

James Rolfe is hilarious, but he's unique. He is able to take a game and either completely hate it or love it, but he is good about nailing why, not just stating it's obviously bad. And I don't believe I've ever seen James Rolfe on a TV show.

What I'm talking about is Top Rated/Most Comments - most of this is done due to bots or just folks who adore one genre.

yeah I usually do not watch the top rated stuff or even the recommended stuff on youtube. It honestly very hard to find good stuff on youtube. I run into a lot of crappy and medicore videos.

Oh God and a lot of top ten list on youtube are garbage (IMO) because they seem of the top ten most popular list. It's a shame how many good things get ignored because they did not have all the hype.

Yeah I think James Rolf could make a very good movie or TV show. I remember during his Halloween review, I was actually scared when he went into the basement, knowing that Mike Meyers was down there. Then he reviewed the child's game Mr Bucket and parts of that creeped me out.

 

[blakstang98]

As I said before, however, some of them can be decent. I personally find James Rolfe, aka. Angry Video Game Nerd, to be funny. But he atleast had the good will to create his own website. LegendaryFrog can be funny (despite not having made a video in years).

Angry Video Game Nerd is excellent. Mainly for the fact that he does videos on a ton of old school video games, and it makes me feel very nostalgic when I watch them. I do agree he's pretty funny as well. Even the video he had about Mario 3 and how it was introduced in some movie before it actually came out (I can't recall the name of it at the moment), was very informative and quite frankly, moving.

Well, the internet has given us a tool to communicate with people all around the world. And so long as it exists, people are going to do anything they can to express themselves. I remember on my old forum (a Guitar Hero forum), a few people became somewhat famous, even in real life because of how awesome they were at the game. I've seen a few of them on the news as a result of their prowess.

Even on YouTube, you have Fred, who was the first to get over a million subscribers, and he does sketch comedy or something. And in the YouTube world, sketch comedy tends to get you partnered, which results in lots of promotion, which makes them a celebrity on the site. Hell, I'm just proud I have over 6,000 views on one of my videos.

But all in all, it doesn't bother me. I mean, people being famous are still people. I'm not a starstruck person, so it's not a big deal to me. But, if they can fulfill their appetite on the internet, then more power to them. I don't have an issue with it either way.

 

[Donald Trump]

I hate all this decline of standards stuff.
Look at x, what does x say about us etc etc.
It's not about talent, it's about exposure.
As new forms of media are created and more ways of accessing them eg iphone ipad, more people like Perez Hilton will become famous.
People like Perez Hilton are very easy to have a go at because he's a prick. No one goes, hmmm why is Heidi Klum famous? She has no talent, just good genes. Most people in Hollywood can't act there way out of a paperbag, but there's no real backlash against them.
As everyone has pointed out, it's always been like this.
The fact that Perez Hilton is famous is not indicative of falling standards or anything like that.

 

[Dr. Percival Cox]

I think just about everytime I make a thread, waves of shit cover me head to toe. Almost like people are waiting to explode at me.

I think what bothers me most of all about it is just how easy it is to do become notorious on the web because of some stupid action. Yeah, I know. It's been that way since before the internet was ever even thought up. But I'm talking about how it applies to our generation that some 22-year-old guy from Dallas can become an internet sensation because he can blow himself off. I guess what I was trying to say with this thread is that it bothers me when people get famous for no reason (and I'm including models) and having the internet as a major function in today's society makes it easier to do such things. I don't like people getting famous from YouTube but if they're actually good at whatever it is that they're doing in the video, then fine. But I don't want to see someone on the evening news because they made a "Scandalous Video." And that's something else. Memes and videos from the internet are becoming apart of regular television. Some person made a video about a chipmunk doing a dramatic face and it became an internet God. Now, they're are car commercials that exploit this by doing it with multiple animals.