Rebecca Black’s “Friday” didn’t invent being nasty online. The theorem that online anonymity breeds rude behavior was commonplace well before Black’s parents paid Ark Music Factory a few thousand dollars to craft a song and music video for their daughter to record. And the message-board-born concept of a “lolcow,” a gullible user who can be goaded into making a fool of themselves on a regular basis, definitely predated the music video.
Even outside of dank subforums, internet denizens had laughed at unfortunate uploads of the “Star Wars Kid,” a 15-year-old who spun a fake light saber to online infamy in 2003, and Britney Spears’ mega-defender Cara Cunningham. Comedian Daniel Tosh even parlayed a desire to gawk at the web’s inept and unaware into a vicious update of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” that aired on Comedy Central for years.
