Day and Night Digital | Irish Independent

The year 2008 in internet terms will most likely be remembered for the ubiquitous use of the word ‘fail’ as a noun or the influence of a glut of parodies which helped sway opinion on the US presidential election candidates. Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin doppelganger worked wonders on Saturday Night Live, from a scarily accurate debate sketch right up to an actual appearance from the Alaskan Governer, while her answers to Katie Couric’s questions were dubbed with the now infamous Miss Teen USA geographical gaffe.

Elsewhere, John McCain’s zombie face was the starting point for many an animated GIF, Obama got his own rickroll and Fox News presenter Bill O’Reilly once again revealed his true colours.

Away from politics, celebrities like Kanye West shared their love for art, design and tantrums through blogging, Celine Dion justified her diva status by being
completely mental , Tom Cruise gave his completely bonkers thoughts on Scientology, MC Hammer used Twitter to send messages of positivity and Stephen Fry proved himself as cool as in real life on the same service.

Internet memes flourished with Fail’s popularity and pictures of cats with idiosyncratic captions known as LOLCATS
.
Video remained the central medium for many strange and wonderful people. A Hungarian male model called Speak tried his hand at antiwar rap with poor yet hysterical results, an enterprising soul took A-ha’s classic Take on Me a little too literally, drum and bass soundtracked the ‘Holy Ghost explosion’, and an artist called Pogo mashed up his engulfing electronica to Alice in Wonderland. TV talent shows such as The X-Factor showed all facets of human emotion, from the self-belief of a Romanian singer’s “English” rendition of Mariah Carey’s Without You to the reaction of five American teen girls to the announcement of the winner.

Speaking of people who can’t sing, how about the Bar Mitzvah karaoke footage? Or the Glasgow Diamonds American football team cheesy theme song from 1986? Utterly priceless.

Bringing it back home, we had the Irish homage to Cloverfield in Shamrockfield, unearthed 80s Quinnsworth adverts, Eddie Moroney proving himself as Aherlow’s greatest sideline GAA commentator, an excerpt from seminal underground documentary The Fighting Irish - Bare Knuckle Boxing and a building site worker’s unfortunate mishap recorded on a mobile phone. Serious lolz and epic fails all round.

So, what are your favourite internet bits of 2008? Leave a comment below.