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Have you gotten the the image of Tron Guy's skin-tight outfit out of your head yet? How about the sound of William Hung singing "She Bangs" or Chris Crockers' pleas to "Leave Britney alone"? Continue at your own risk to see the 10 Internet Celebrities we'd like to forget.![Tron_Guy]()
Relatively innocuous on the Internet celebrity scale, Tron Guy is Jay Maynard. His home page, tronguy.net, includes pictures of himself in his Tron costume as well as photos and a description of making the costume. Tron Guy is one of several Internet celebs sent up in a South Park episode called “Canada on Strike.” Tron Guy hasn’t been grasping at the retreating spotlight as far as we know, but the image of him in his Tron costume sticks.![Chris Crocker]()
Prior to his “Leave Britney Alone!” video, Chris Crocker was an extremely popular fixture on YouTube. Many of his videos have been viewed over a million times a piece, some in the multiple millions. As of May 2010, “Leave Britney Alone,” Crocker’s tearful and profanity-laced plea to media mainstream and blog-based, had over 31 million views. Despite rumors of a television reality show in the works a few years ago, Crocker’s TV appearances have been limited to a couple of guest spots and a send-up on South Park.![LonelyGirl15]()
LonelyGirl15, in reality an actor named Jessica Rose, was ostensibly a teenager who liked to talk to the camera about her life. After LonelyGirl15’s life got a bit too wacky to believe, fans caught on. Though many may not remember her now, the story of LonelyGirl15 was big enough to make it to broadcast news. Ultimately, her popularity wasn’t sufficient to survive the revelation that LonelyGirl15 was just a character.![Numa Numa Dance]()
Perhaps no Internet video has reached the success of the Numa Numa Dance. The video was recorded by Gary Brolsma, who dances to the song "Dragostea din tei" by O-Zone. As of June, the video has been viewed over 37 million times and has even led to Brolsma being parodied on South Park and making an appearance in a Super Bowl XLIV commercial.![William_Hung_2]()
A UC Berkeley student at time of his American Idol audition, William Hung became an instant sensation. While no one claimed the man had any singing talent, his rendition of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” got millions of hits on YouTube. Hung went on to land a record deal, appear in television commercials and made appearances on talk shows and the series Arrested Development, and was even the subject of a documentary.![Jennicam_1]()
In 1998, Jennifer Ringley began broadcasting her life via webcam and became one of the first regular people to become famous via the Internet. Jennicam wasn’t a live stream—bandwidth was still too dear—but subscribers waited eagerly for still capture updates, then paid for the privilege. By the time Ringley turned off the cameras at the end of 2003, “Jennicam” was a widely used metatag luring Internet searchers to adult sites. Although Ringley is now far out of the spotlight, Jennicam’s legacy is all around.![Peter_Pan1]()
Self-proclaimed “Eternal Child” Randy Constan is also a Christian evangelist, singer, and and software engineer, but he’s known for being a middle-aged Peter Pan. With his signature bowl-cut hair and homemade Peter Pan outfits, Constan cuts a memorable figure. Since meeting his “Tink” (and marrying her), Constan has eased up on posting.![Perez Hilton]()
Not content to blog anonymously, Perez Hilton, born Mario Armando Lavandeira, Jr., instead posted celebrity photos and commentary on his blog. Hilton has drawn ire for “outing” celebrities he claimed were gay and for doodling often obscene images over photos of celebrities. Hilton’s insistence on inserting himself into the world he blogs about has paid off.![Youtube Kids]()
Whether it’s the shamelessly exploitative shots of parents reminding kids why they’re upset so they’ll cry more for the camera or the quizzing of a child emerging from anesthesia about whether it “kinda felt good,” these children garner huge hit counts on YouTube well before the age of consent or any understanding of the ramifications of being an Internet star.![Tom from Myspace]()
Anyone who ever signed up for a MySpace account automatically made one new friend: Tom. Tom Anderson, co-founder of the popular social networking site, arranged things that way. Aside from a small quasi-scandal about his real age, we didn’t hear much about everybody’s first friend until a year ago, when MySpace quietly replaced it top executive brass.Worst of the Web: 10 Internet Celebrities We’d Like to Forget
No one knows what turns a typical person into an Internet phenomenon -- but what we do know is that no matter how hard we try, we just can't look away. Here are 10 "celebrities" who hit it big thanks to the Web. By Sarah Pike
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- Worst of the Web: 10 Internet Celebrities We’d Like to Forget
