Down In Front!

I honestly can't tell if it is really hard or really easy to become an internet sensation. One the one hand it is very easy to put yourself out there on any number of internet sites and then let the masses do the work for you - passing it along to all their friends, family co-workers and people they haven't physically seen since the third grade until your 15 seconds of fame are over. There is very little legwork required, which is why it seems easy enough. However, I think the reason I am unwilling to fully commit to this side of the argument is that the people who become the most famous always seem like that was never their intent. For every aspiring musician who worked really hard in the studio to produce a good song and then get it put in front of the right people, there is a person who was just out for a fun night of karaoke but they were so bad the crowd wanted to capture it for posterity, uploads it and suddenly they have 100,000 YouTube views and that horrible singer is being asked to appear at the local minor league baseball game. I guess you could say this happens because there are so many jaded internet users who don't like being used and the person who produced a song in a studio is clearly trying to manipulate the internet to achieve fame, whereas the terrible karaoke singer was just out for a night of drunken singing and everyone likes how good-natured they are being about it. As long as you can laugh at yourself people are willing to give you some benefits for taking it all in stride.

Along those lines, this week we got a new unintended internet superstar when a photo began to circulate on various message boards of a man trying to propose to his girlfriend at Disney World while a member of their family captured the moment with their camera. The problem is there is another man walking through the frame at the same time and while he sees what is going on and is trying to quickly get out of the way, it is too late - he has planted himself smack in the middle of the picture. Honestly, he couldn't have been more in the way if he was trying. Social etiquette dictates that as long as you make an effort to get out of the way of the picture that is good enough, but let's be honest here - there is no graceful way to do this. This is when the internet took over and began doing one of my favorite things, which is photoshopping this guy into all sorts of famous photos throughout history. I love to see how creative people can get in these situations and it only took a couple of hours before this random man with an awkward expression on his face was seen trying to get out of the way of the Berlin Wall coming down and the next second he was standing in the way as people tried to watch the Moon Landing. Each one was a little more clever than the last and I was quite pleased with the internet's efforts.

[Sidebar: There is only one thing I don't like about this and that is comparing this one couple's engagement to all those important life-altering events. Look, I am sure these people are a perfectly nice couple but I happen to have a strict no-public-engagement policy. I find them rather tacky. And if this photo was originally uploaded by a member of this couple's family because they wanted to complain about this guy stepping into their picture I am suddenly glad he ruined their pictures, because they have no right to complain. In my opinion if you want to get engaged in one of the most public spots in the world than you should have no expectations when it comes to people who are not involved in what you are doing staying out of your shot. You can either have the public spectacle or great pictures of your moment, but you can't honestly expect to get both unless you plan on renting out Disney World for the afternoon. I simply can't shake the feeling that this picture only surfaced because either the couple of a member of their family put it online to complain about it and the people on the internet are the ones who turned it into this light-hearted moment. If that is the case, allow me to put a bit of a pin in their balloon - if you think getting engaged in front of a fake castle in Florida is the most romantic thing ever, you'd better get used to life ruining your ideas of a good time.]

But what I appreciated most was that none of the internet comments appeared to take the man to task for ruining this couple's special moment. I know that seems like such a low bar, but if you have ever read the internet comments underneath any story on the internet (and if you haven't pleased don't - be the one unspoiled person on the internet) than you know there is usually one person who can take offense to just about anything. I would like to think this is because we have all been there. I mean, who among us hasn't been in some public place on the way to look at an exhibit and noticed far too late that we are about to make ourselves part of another person's memory? There is no limit to the number of pictures you or I may have accidentally been a part of. (Just be happy we live in the time of digital photos so that they are easily erased. I'd feel much worse if I thought about how many rolls of film have been used up by people needing to take a picture a second or third time.) This guy just had the bad misfortune of being in the right place at the wrong time and having his photo uploaded when there was nothing else going on to distract all the users of Reddit. But the fact he hasn't contacted Reddit to have the picture taken down shows he can also laugh about the situation... or he doesn't know he's internet famous yet. Either way he's been getting credit for it so far to better to remain quiet than speak up and ruin a perfectly good thing.