LazyTown

About

LazyTown was a puppet-based show from Iceland that taught young children to be active and healthy. In addition to airing in Iceland, the show was dubbed into English and aired on the U.S. station Nickelodeon. Quickly becoming a popular show, it caught the attention of various online communities, including 4chan’s /b/, and became the source for a variety of memetic content.

Origins

LazyTown was created by and co-starred champion aerobic gymnast Magnús Scheving. The show featured a colorful combination of live action, puppetry, and CG effects. The main aspect of the show that was source of 4chan’s memetic reaction was the pairing of a 14-year-old female protagonist with a 40-year-old male protagonist, which – in addition to being perhaps a bit sketchy in itself – tended to provide a treasure trove of screen shots that supported the innuendo of pedophilia.

Sub-memes

In addition to the frequent use of screen shots image macros and animated gifs, the show spawned a few notable fads that are memes in their own right.

Cooking by the Book

This song, from the episode “Swiped Sweets” was remixed with Lil Jon singing part of “Step Yo Game Up”, the result becoming very popular:

You are a Pirate!

A song from the episode “Rottenbeard”, it took off on YouTube, spawning many covers, remixes, and reenactments, including the very popular “LOL, LimeWire” variation.

Google insights

Even though the show’s last episode was in April of 2007, search volume actually increased through a good portion of 2009, and despite dropping off remains high for quite some time after.

Twitter Feed

External References

^[1]