The Criminal Act on Toby

Link to Us: http://snipr.com/savetoby

Can you imagine there are immoral people in the cyber world as in trying to get the public compassion by using an animal to earn money? Maybe not but it happened and the worse thing is that it became an Internet Meme called “Save Toby”. This Internet Meme began five years ago in 2005, when a guy named James Mceahly found an injured rabbit outside of his home. We wonder how did the rabbit got there.

Anyway, James brought the rabbit home and names it Toby. He took care of it and nursed Toby till he is fully recovered. Some of you maybe wondering, how is this called immoral? Well, continue reading before forming any conclusion.


Savetoby.com | Only YOU have the power to Save Toby! [Online] Retrieved on 11th March 2010.
URL: http://www.savetoby.com/#

While the rabbit is getting back to hundred percent in terms of his health, James setup a website and calls it “Save Toby | Only YOU have the power to Save Toby” at savetoby.com. He then tell the readers how he took care of Toby and how much he had spent on the rabbit. So, he wants to claim back the money spent from the readers that visited the website. How? James said that if at the end of the day, he do not receive US$50 000 of donation to the website, he will kill Toby and have him as a meal for himself! At this point, some of you may feel like killing James instead.

Pathetically, that message caught the attention of some readers as well as their sympathy towards Toby. They started to get nervous and ask their acquaintances to donate the money to save Toby. However, the website only received up to US$28 000 of donation at the end of the day but according to James, he is satisfied with the figure and Toby’s life was spared.

Slowly, more and more people started to follow James’s act and ask for donation on their own website such as Save Bernd and Save Fluffy. Having said all of this, Urban legend website snopes.com indicates that the website is a hoax. Some claimed that the amount gained in the website was just an imitation.

Despite people saying it is a hoax, we think that James’s act towards Toby is highly unnecessary and somewhat unforgivable because he is trying to toy with Toby’s life to gain money and can even think of such act. So, do you agree with what we said about James’s act or do you think James has done nothing wrong at all? Share your thoughts with us by commenting on this post.


References:
1. 10 Craziest Internet Meme [Online] Retrieved on 11th March 2010.
URL: http://www.oddee.com/item_63440.aspx

2. snopes.com: Save Toby [Online] Retrieved on 13th March 2010.
URL: http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/savetoby.asp

3. Save Toby, Know Your Meme [Online] Retrieved on 13th March 2010.
URL: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/save-toby


Advin

Yo dawg!

Link to Us: http://snipr.com/yodawg

We all know this guy from the hit MTV show, Pimp My Ride. He goes by the name Xzibit and he is the low-rise pants, big "bling", hip hop rapper host that everyone would love to have appear in front of their door step. Pimp My Ride is a reality program that helps makeover or rather "pimp" up a trashy-looking car into a one-of-a-kind vehicle. If you actually watched the show, you would know that he would criticize the car before ringing the doorbell to the person's house.

Why is Xzibit, the rapper, has to do with this week's post? That is because he is one of this week's Internet Meme.

Xzibit and together with a whole crew of automates from L.A.'s West Coast Customs, will come up with the most out-of-this-world design and gadgets in the car. A pool table, a fishtank, a bar, and a built-in Jacuzzi are just some of the few gadgets that may be installed inside the new "pimp" car. The whole West Coast Custom crew always come up with some really crazy but brilliant ideas to pimp up an old junk car.

What many people may not notice is that Xzibit have his own language and style of speaking. His famous phrase is "Yo dawg" or "Sup dawg". In simple English, it means "Hello" and "How are you?". But one of the most famous catch phrase and the only reason why we are writing this post is something like this,

"Yo dawg, we heard you liked ___ so we put a ___ in your ___ so you can ___ while you ___."


Xzibit Yo Dawg, Know Your Meme [Image Online] Retrieved on 13th March 2010.
URL: http://knowyourmeme.com/i/177/original/800px-Sup_dawg.jpg

For example, in a proper sentence, "Yo dawg, we heard you liked bikes so we put a bike on your bike so you can ride while you ride."


Jennifer Van Groove, Social Media Breaks: 5 Internet MemeS to Make You LOL, Mashable [Online] Retrieved on 13th March 2010.
URL: http://mashable.com/2009/03/04/funny-memes/

The sentence vary in many ways. Most of the time, the sentence does not make much sense but because of that and also his rapper style, it caught the attention of many. It spreads like a virus when people started to talk like that online and using images from the web and putting the catch phrase on it.


Jennifer Van Groove, Social Media Breaks: 5 Internet MemeS to Make You LOL, Mashable [Online] Retrieved on 13th March 2010.
URL: http://mashable.com/2009/03/04/funny-memes/

Even the man himself was shock by such phenomenon. He even tweeted on his Twitter account about it. He posted on Twitter several times. The first time his Tweet sounded angry and it describes his belittle of the whole frenzy.


Print screen from : http://twitter.com/mrxtothaz/status/1260527355

But in his second he redraw his bitterness and said, "I'm not mad @ you". Even Xzibit himself needed time to adjust to such phenomenon and was surprise with the kind of response.


Print screen from : http://twitter.com/mrxtothaz/status/1265979909

This phenomenon started in 2007 and till today, there are still people trying to keep this phenomenon alive by displaying more images with the same catch phrase. There are tons of those images online and there is even a website solely for the "Yo dawg" phenomenon (http://yoyodawgdawg.com/). Half of it doesn't even make sense but what do you personally think of this phenomenon? Do you think Xzibit was over-reacting on Twitter? Leave us a comment to tell us what you think.


References:
1. Xzibit Yo Dawg, Know Your Meme [Online] Retrieved on 13th March 2010.
URL: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/xzibit-yo-dawg

2. MTV's Pimp My Ride - The Complete First Season (2004), Amazon.com [Online] Retrieved on 13th March 2010.

URL: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007KIFKU?ie=UTF8&tag=rocketboom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0007KIFKU

3. Jennifer Van Groove, Social Media Breaks: 5 Internet MemeS to Make You LOL, Mashable [Online] Retrieved on 13th March 2010.
URL: http://mashable.com/2009/03/04/funny-memes/


Vivienne

Weekly Poll Result 8 - Entertainment Gained

Link to Us: http://snipr.com/weeklypoll8

When a person views news, blog posts, videos or any other similar content on the Internet, they usually gain something from it regardless whether it is purely just for entertainment or interests or nothing. And that is what we are trying to find out from this poll as we asked what you can possibly get by viewing Internet Meme last week. The results have been collected and analyzed. We can say that there are no major shocks in the results.

"Entertainment" came out on top as fifty eight percent of the respondents voted for it. From this, we can say that most of the Internet users out there feel that they gain entertainment by viewing Internet Meme. The reason being that is they are interested in it and as mentioned in the previous posts, it can provide everyone with laughter and as a result, making everyone happy.

Even some of the lamest Internet Meme can be funny to some extent because there are people who can see the funny side of things even though the Internet Meme might not be funny to others, generally. Viewing Internet Meme can sometimes also be considered as a way of killing boredom as some people like to search for random stuff on the Internet.

Next is "Humor" where it obtained thirty four percent of the respondents' votes. Internet users who often view Internet Meme could well end up as jokers as they could be learning and gaining the humor and tricks of Internet Meme. They then might even starts to practice what they have gained from it by playing a prank to one of their acquaintances.

Apart from that, these users who viewed Internet Meme and gained the humor and tricks can use them when they communicate with their friends or family to make the conversation atmosphere to be more lively, assuming if the mood is rather flat and boring. And indirectly, they are spreading the existence of the particular Internet Meme.

The remaining eight percent of the respondents voted for "Knowledge". This reflects that the Internet users view Internet Meme to read and study it without any evil intentions. And what we meant here by study is not like students going to school or college to study about Geography or Marketing but rather just taking note of it like a side knowledge. Users could react "Mmm, interesting..." when they view Internet Meme. They might even bookmark the particular web page but not writing it down like taking lecture notes.

Lastly, none of the respondents felt they gained nothing by viewing Internet Meme. In other words, users feel that they are able to gain something by viewing Internet Meme regardless of whether it is significant or not. So, do you agree with the results? Do you think that viewing Internet Meme gives you nothing? Share your thoughts with us as we would like to hear from you.


Jason