Other phenomena
- Chuck Norris facts – satirical factoids about martial artist and actor Chuck Norris that became popular culture after spreading through the Internet.[309]
- Creepypasta – urban legends or scary stories circulating on the Internet, many times revolving around specific videos, pictures or video games.[310] Video game "creepypasta" often involves a hacked, glitched, bootleg, or beta copy of the game, typically found in thrift shops or garage sales. They often describe gameplay changes which are particularly violent, sadistic or demonic. The term "creepypasta" is a mutation of the term "copypasta": a short, readily available piece of text that is easily copied and pasted into a text field. "Copypasta" being a perverted version of "copy/paste", and in the original sense of copypasta commonly referring to presumably initially sincere text (e.g. blog or forum post) perceived as undesirable or otherwise preposterous to then be copied and pasted as a form of trolling.
- Figwit (abbreviated from "Frodo is great...who is that?") – a background elf character with only seconds of screen time and one line of dialog from The Lord of the Rings film trilogy played by Flight of the Conchords member Bret McKenzie, which became a fascination with a large number of fans. This ultimately led to McKenzie being brought back to play an elf in The Hobbit.[311][312][313]
- Freecycling – The exchange of unwanted goods via the Internet.[314]
- Horse ebooks / Pronunciation Book - A five-year long viral marketing alternate reality game for a larger art project developed by Synydyne. "Horse_ebooks" was a Twitter account that seemed to promote e-books, while "Pronunciation Book" was a YouTube channel that provided ways to pronounce English words. Both accounts engaged in non-sequitors, making some believe that the accounts were run by automated services. Pronunciation Book shifted to pronouncing numerals in a countdown fashion in mid-2013, concluding in late September 2013 revealing the connection to Horse_ebook and identity of Synydyne behind the accounts, and the introduction of their next art project.[315][316]
- I am lonely will anyone speak to me – A thread created on MovieCodec.com's forums, which has been described as the "Web's Top Hangout for Lonely Folk" by Wired magazine.[317]
- Illegal flower tribute – when Google China began considering withdrawing from the country because of disputes with the government over censorship and the Chinese government's intrusion into their computer systems, supporters of Google from around Beijing laid flowers at the company's headquarters in Zhongguancun. The flowers donated by previous visitors were promptly removed by the security guards, one of whom said that people needed to apply for government permits in order not to make an "illegal flower tribute".[318][319]
- Jeff the Killer- Jeff is depicted as a serial killer who stabs people to death in their beds.[320] He is the main character in a well-known creepypasta, appears as an internet meme with the caption "go to sleep" and was the inspiration of an independent game and several gaming mods.[321] The origin of the "go to sleep" meme is unknown, although 4chan and promotional material for Saw V have both been suggested as the original source.[322]
- Miss Me Yet? – inspired a series of themed merchandise from online agencies such asCafePress.[323]
- One red paperclip – The story of a Canadian blogger who bartered his
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