Internet celebrity

An Internet celebrity, netculture personality, blogebrity, cyberstar^[1] or online celebrity^[1] is someone who has become famous by means of the Internet. Internet allows people to reach a narrow audience across the world and so become famous within one or more Internet communities.^[2]

Rising to fame

Many millions of people write online journals or weblogs. In many cases, they write anonymously or their focus is upon a specialist topic. But if the author has or develops a distinctive personality, their fame will derive from this as much as from the content of their blog.^[1]

In some cases, people might rise to fame through a single event or video that goes viral. The Internet allows videos, news articles, and jokes to spread very quickly. Depending on the reach of the spread, the content may become considered an "Internet meme," and thus, any of the people associated may gain exposure. For example, Zach Anner, an Austin, Texas-based comedian gained world-wide attention after submitting a video to Oprah Winfrey's "Search for the Next TV Star" competition

Internet celebrity has also become a popular phenomenon in the China (PRC) with the likes of Sister Hibiscus, Shi Hengxia (Fu Rong Jiejie), who received worldwide notoriety and fame for her unashamed efforts at self-promotion via internet postings.^[3]

The concept of web celebrity ties in to Andy Warhol's quip about 15 minutes of fame. A more recent adaptation of Warhol's quip, possibly prompted by the rise of online social networking, blogging, and similar online phenomena, is the claim that "In the future, everyone will be famous to fifteen people" or, in some renditions, "On the Web, everyone will be famous to fifteen people".^[4] This quote, though attributed to David Weinberger, was said^[4] to have originated with the Scottish artist Momus.^[5]

Examples

• Dane Boedigheimer, an adult who has a series of videos. One of the videos "The Annoying Orange" has become a popular meme with its own series
• Michael Rosen who has become a meme in himself, who thrilled the world with the short videos of himself reciting children's poems.
• Kyle Craven, an American Internet celebrity known for his ubiquitous photo that became a popular Image macro in 2012.
• Chris Crocker, an American Internet celebrity, occasional blogger, and occasional recording artist. Crocker gained international fame in September 2007 from his viral video "Leave Britney Alone", in which he tearfully defends pop singer Britney Spears's comeback performance at the MTV Video Music Awards; his video had over four million views in two days.^[6] The video received international media attention, hundreds of parodies and criticism for Crocker.
• Bo Burnham, an American teenager, famous for his comedic music on YouTube.
• Lucas Cruikshank, an American teenager, famous for his YouTube comedy videos. He has been releasing videos since 2007, using the fake name Fred Figglehorn. He has since successfully released multiple music albums, guest starred on multiple television programs and is common among internet pop culture.
• Lisa Donovan, an American actress and writer who rose to fame after self-producing comedic short films, published under the username LisaNova on YouTube. As she gained an audience on YouTube, she was given a featured player role in MADtv in February 2007.^[7] After appearing in four episodes, she moved to Los Angeles and founded Zappin Productions,^[8] a production company specializing in viral videos.
• Perez Hilton, an American blogger, whose blog, Perezhilton.com, is known for posts covering gossip items about musicians, actors and celebrities. His blog garnered negative attention for its attitude, its active "outing" of alleged closeted celebrities and its role in the increasing coverage of celebrities in all forms of media.
• Eduard Khil, a Russian singer whose song, I am Very Glad to be Returning Home, or Trololo, became an Internet meme in 2010.
• Jon Lajoie, a Canadian comedian, actor, rapper, singer and musician who became an Internet celebrity thanks to his many humorous music videos.
• Germano Mosconi, an Italian sport journalist who became famous after the publication of a video on YouTube.
• Casey Neistat, an American filmmaker, famous for his inspirational YouTube videos. Created the Make It Count Film which was viewed over 5 million times in 10 days
• Marina Orlova A Russian philologist who is a YouTube star that teaches the etymology of English words. Former spokeswoman for AnastasiaDate,^[9] an online dating website.
• Josh Ostrovsky, An American comedian known for his stunt viral videos and large social media following.
• Aziz Shavershian, better known by his Internet handle Zyzz, was a Moscow-born Australian bodybuilder, internet celebrity, personal trainer, model and a part-time stripper who established a cult following after posting multiple videos of himself on YouTube.
• Grumpy Cat, a female cat known for her grumpy expression.
• Colonel Meow, a male cat known as an "adorable fearsome dictator" and for his love of Scotch.
• Arin Hanson, better known by his username Egoraptor, is an American internet animator who is also famous for being part of the popular Let's Play channel on YouTube titled Game Grumps, and 1/3 of the comedy band Starbomb.
• Zubin Damania, a Stanford Hospitalist who used an alter ego, "ZDoggMD," to produce YouTube parody rap videos that comment on the state of the healthcare system, different diseases, treatments, preventative measures, and stigmas around healthcare.^[10]
• Vic Dibitetto, a stand-up comedian who creates YouTube videos. Dibitetto's launch into stardom occurred after he created a video called, "Bread and Milk."^[11] His videos helped him develop an internet following, and even caught the interest of actor Kevin James, who personally asked Dibitetto to appear in Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2.^[12][13][14]

See also

• List of Internet phenomena
• List of YouTube personalities
• Usenet celebrity
• YouTube

References

Further reading

• "Internet Fame Is Cruel Mistress for a Dancer of the Numa Numa" at The New York Times
• "The Flip Side of Internet Fame" at Newsweek
• "Rise of an Internet Star - Parlaying YouTube Fame Into Big Business" at ReadWriteWeb
• "Internet Famous: Julia Allison and the Secrets of Self-Promotion" at Wired
• "The new fame: Internet celebrity" at CNN
• "The Microfame Game" at "New York"