Making the most of being meme-famous
IDSC "BlackTechLogy": 'Disaster Girl' sells her meme for $500K
“Who in their right mind would buy a meme for $500K?”
That was the first reaction I had to finding out that “Disaster Girl” sold the original photo of her younger self, smiling while a house was on fire. I recognized this kid and have shared this meme on a handful of occasions. And while I still struggle to figure out why someone would pay Zoe Roth for an image that’s so widely available online, how can I not applaud a woman who is using nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to her advantage? And she’s reportedly using the funds for her school loans and charitable causes. This is anything but a disaster.
According to the New York Times, the meme sold for 180 ether (a form of cryptocurrency) at a foundation auction last month. That amount is valued at $495,000, in which her family retains the copyright and will receive 10% of future sales.
NFTs and technology are going down a fascinating trail. From the cryptocurrency side, The Weeknd sold exclusive art and music this year with the help of Nifty Gateway. On the tech end, will.i.am is making the most of COVID-19 by creating his own face mask, XUPERMASK, which has fans, noise-canceling audio, Bluetooth capability and seven hours of battery life. (It was not approved by the FDA as personal protective equipment, or PPE, but then again, neither are most cloth masks.) But with well-known artists like these, it was a given that they’d make a reasonable amount of money.
What intrigues me more is how everyday people have become Internet famous for just being themselves. Now does everyone end up with an NFT deal? Maybe not.
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Did Elijah Connor become the billionaire he wanted to be for staring back at Diddy? No. But do we immediately know him when we see him? Absolutely.
Have we all done the “Oh no, baby, what is you doing?” face when we see something peculiar? Of course. Do we do what T-Pain’s manager (allegedly) did and tell random folks like Nick Joseph to come to our hotel rooms because we recognize them? Don’t answer that. It’s none of my business.
It’s all in fun, and memes usually leave us with a smile on our faces. Lucrative or not, let’s enjoy a few other familiar meme faces too.
The memorable meme
If you know someone who is overthinking everything or had a light bulb moment, then you’ve seen the equivalent of Kayode Ewumi. What people may not know is the missed opportunity when he stone-cold turned down the filmmaker who asked him to speak in another language. It’s just as funny.
If you just cannot wrap your mind around something you just saw and need someone to either break it down for you or show you their end game, then you know the equivalent of this sista Kalin Elisa. The most amusing part is she was really just trying to do the prison pose and needed to give her knees a break.
There’s no way you could’ve missed out on Mr. Chocolate Rain. You could probably sing his song even if the video is on mute. It’s a coin toss whether the same people singing the chorus remember that Tay Zonday’s song is about racism. Either way, you could be mad at him for getting a few dollars from Diet Pepsi and voiceover work?
And whether you’re a target of this kind of expression or you’re the person doing it, chances are you’ve had a “tsk tsk tsk” moment like battle rapper Reggie “Conceited” Sergile did here. But do you know his work outside of the meme?
Once the Internet gets ahold of an image, especially if it’s comical, it’s hard to retain control of it. Bad Luck Brian’s mother (a middle school teacher) randomly saw someone wearing his school picture on a T-shirt at her own school—after it was purchased at Hot Topic. What’d he do? Got an intellectual property (IP) lawyer. Cue the meme of Kayode Ewumi again! Good thinking.
Whether you become Internet famous by accident or on purpose, may as well make your likeness profitable and fun to talk about.
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