Knowing meme, knowing you

Quick question, pop quiz fans: What do I have in common with Rick Astley, Snakes on a Plane and a golf club-wielding fat kid? No, it's not that we'd be terrible company on a long-haul flight (I may look like a terrorist in all my hirsuteness, but I couldn't hijack a second bag of peanuts).

The answer is, we're all subjects of Internet memes - a sort of web 2.0 inside joke, a catchphrase or concept that's spread quickly from person to person via the Internet.

The movie, Snakes on a Plane, inspired a raft of parodies, songs and fan fiction; YouTube made a reluctant star of the 'Star Wars kid' (now, sadly, under psychiatric care "for an indefinite amount of time"); and the recent surprise (though not undeserving) recipient of this year's Best Act Ever MTV award, Rick Astley, was the subject of a phenomenon called Rickrolling, whereby web surfers were tricked into watching the 1987 music video, "Never Gonna Give You Up".

Similarly, users of the social networking website, Facebook, might be mildly irritated to click the status updates of their friends, which are beginning to lead to my website. Mine changed last week to "San Sharma is sansharma.com"; it was followed by similar URL-toting updates from my girlfriend and now two of her colleagues. In the nicest way possible (and in a way that won't alarm my girlfriend), I'm viral! And my web statistics are beginning to show. Facebook is the top referrer, followed by Google, where one visitor found me with the query "massage parlours shropshire" (I'm on page 8 of the results, which says more about said visitor's appetite than it does my website).

Let's hope I don't befall the same fate as other Internet memettes (though I'd rather a Best Act Ever award than a lifetime of psychiatric care). On that note, I'll leave you with my favourite of the memes, viewed an estimated 1 billion times - ladies and gentlemen, the Star Wars Kid.