The Internet is Serious Business (2003)Researching

added Aug 20, 2009 at 12:06AM UTC

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part of a series on General Mayhem

About

The Internet is serious business, and other variants are generally used sarcastically to mock another’s serious tone.

Origin

According to Wikiquote, “The Internet is Serious Business” is a catch phrase attributed to General [M]ayhem.

Genmay member mr_brett created a series of animated cat gifs, one of which was called catbusiness.gif.

Here was the context according to him:

i believe i can provide a bit more background as well: as i recall, our illustrious leader of [M] at the time, M|22, pissed off some internet company and they wrote a letter to him complaining of his actions and closed out the letter by saying “the internet is serious business” or something quite similar to that effect. then you had click46 + me & fireworks = many, many kittah .gifs.

good times :)

In the following screenshot from a Genmay thread from 2003, we see a request for the Serious Business Cat gif, although the image has long since 404’d.

By 2005, most Genmay users had tired of constant requests for the image. (related thread)

Thanks to Mr_Brett again, we can have a glimpse at that first cat derivative:

It should be noted that Google image searches for catbusiness.gif do not result in any instances of the mr_brett image. This reluctance to share the image prevented the original image from remaining a part of the meme, despite the fact that the phrase spread much further than Genmay.

Spread

Dramatica brought the “Serious business” meme to a larger audience and introduced a new context in their recount of some MMORPG drama.

In 2005, a random player of the “Dark Age Of Camelot” MMORPG tried, for 3 days consecutively, to obtain a precious item called “Cloudsong” but, when he was about to get one, some other players stole it from him right before his eyes.

The whole story can be found on Dramatica:
http://encyclopediadramatica.com/YOU_FUCKING_STOLE_MY_CLOUDSONG
Or here:
http://wiki.ytmnd.com/Cloudsong

The unlucky player exploded in a great internet rage that later became the subject of a number of remixes.

YTMNDs were made from it. But, actually, they were misnamed with the World of Warcraft game, adding to the rage and confusion of numerous players:
Serious business version
Original version
Animated version
Youtube version

It contains variations such as “Internet… Serious Fucking Business”, “The Internet: Serious Business”, “Internet = Srs Business”, “SRS BIZNS” or “INTERNET!!” and is commonly used as a text in an image macro to begin with, but can also be found as a simple phrase.

Because the “Serious Business” meme was one of the most commonly used elements in Cloudsong memetic instances, many came to associate both memes together.

In 2007, the site internetseriousbusiness.com was launched, containing a Rickroll and a series of annoying unblockable popups featuring the song’s lyrics.

There’s also a blog that seems to deal with memes and Internet in general.

Use

They have all the same meaning and the same use: to invite someone in having hindsight while highlighting when a debate is becoming heated on a forum.
A great amount of image macros about this theme has been made, picturing usually someone who stands with a straight and serious face.

There are tons of variations containing phrases ending with the “serious business” words.

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23 Comments

Steven R.
Aug 20, 2009 at 12:34AM UTC , Steven R. wrote:

already uploaded

Jamie Dubs
Aug 20, 2009 at 12:37AM UTC , Jamie Dubs wrote:

think we didn’t have this actually! Good initial investigation, could use for some more hunting as the origins… not sure if we’ll find it for this one

Tomberry
Aug 20, 2009 at 12:37AM UTC , Tomberry wrote:

Hmmm, I can’t find it. If you’re talking about the “Internets” slang from Bush, well, it’s completely different…

Tomberry
Aug 20, 2009 at 12:39AM UTC , Tomberry wrote:

Well, actually, i found something from 2000 but I don’t know if it’s closely related.
here

The title could be the first instance.

Griff McConal
Aug 20, 2009 at 01:50AM UTC , Griff McConal wrote:

maybe should be called “X, serious business”

Benjamin S S
Aug 21, 2009 at 12:18AM UTC , Benjamin S S wrote:

I dont think the name should be changed to “X, insert meme” just because someone replaced the original with X

DJ Intercept
Aug 21, 2009 at 03:46AM UTC , DJ Intercept wrote:

confirm this for great justice

Deuxieme_en_pie
Aug 21, 2009 at 04:08AM UTC , Deuxieme_en_pie wrote:

I wouldn’t call it a meme, but it’s an important internet catchphrase, and should be documented. Confirm pl0x

Dylan James
Aug 22, 2009 at 03:40AM UTC , Dylan James wrote:

indeed, it is serious.

Tomberry
Aug 28, 2009 at 01:34AM UTC , Tomberry wrote:

Macintosh “Serious Business” Commercial

From 1995, I think. Could be a hint maybe.

Chris Menning
Sep 07, 2009 at 11:13PM UTC , Chris Menning wrote:

I really don’t think Cloudsong has anything to do with this meme.

Even though there is a “Serious Business” version of the Cloudsong meme, there are some issues.

There was already an “Internet. Serious business” YTMND fad for about a year prior to the Cloudsong YTMND fad.
http://seriousdeadbusiness.ytmnd.com/

About a month after the first “Internet. Serious Business” YTMND was made, ED created their entry about it.
http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/index.php?title=The_Internet_is_serious_business&oldid=2914

The YTMND wiki redirects “serious business” to their Cloudsong article, but that doesn’t change the fact that the “internet. serious business.” trend came before the Cloudsong trend.

Chris Menning
Sep 07, 2009 at 11:15PM UTC , Chris Menning wrote:

excuse me, it was 5 months between YTMND and ED.

Tomberry
Sep 07, 2009 at 11:19PM UTC , Tomberry wrote:

So, hem…The Cloudsong wasn’t the origin but it helped creating mutations with it, I think.

Thank for having found this, anyways.

SzFeri
Sep 17, 2009 at 11:08AM UTC , SzFeri wrote:

Hi there. Anyone knows the original source of the “old successful businessman” image? I think that’s awesome. LOL

AdmiralFalcon
Nov 19, 2009 at 01:20AM UTC , AdmiralFalcon wrote:

We should probably have something about how “Internet is SRS BZNESS” is used among trolls to mock Internet Tough Guys. Although I’m not sure if it’s still used in that context.

Chris Menning
Dec 14, 2009 at 10:38PM UTC , Chris Menning wrote:

Wikiquote credits someone named General [M]ayhem for coining “Internet is serious business.”

By looking through genmay.com, it appears that in 2003 (pre-4chan) there was something of a rivalry between that site and SomethingAwful. Also, both sites were using “kthanxbye”, “fapping”, “tl;dr”, and “kittah” before 4chan was so much as a glimmer in moot’s eye.

This has been a breakthrough.
http://www.genmay.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=118675

Chris Menning
Dec 14, 2009 at 10:39PM UTC , Chris Menning wrote:

Also, to correct a statement I made 3 months ago, I can see how the Cloudsong incident has been a strong factor in the mutation of this meme over time.

Tomberry
Dec 15, 2009 at 12:06AM UTC , Tomberry wrote:

Wow Chris ! You’re amazing. I gave up for some time because I thought it was influenced by IRL trials concerning internet, but it wasn’t really the case.

But, does that mean that it can also been the origin of the “tl;dr” article ?

Chris Menning
Dec 15, 2009 at 11:44PM UTC , Chris Menning wrote:

Thanks Tomberry!
I’m not exactly sure, but I’d say that’s very likely. I have a lot of old forum reading to catch up on :)

Tomberry
Dec 16, 2009 at 05:34PM UTC , Tomberry wrote:

Thank you very much for your edit on it, Chris !
I didn’t know about all that background concerning that cat image.

Chris Menning
Dec 16, 2009 at 05:41PM UTC , Chris Menning wrote:

Sure thing!
Jamiedubs said something a few days ago that made a lot of sense. “No one can be aware of ALL internet traditions.”

mr_brett
Jan 24, 2010 at 03:33PM UTC , mr_brett wrote:

greetings all, i was directed to this page by the infamous click46, the other party responsible for the amazing animated cat series. i believe i can provide a bit more background as well: as i recall, our illustrious leader of [M] at the time, M|22, pissed off some internet company and they wrote a letter to him complaining of his actions and closed out the letter by saying “the internet is serious business” or something quite similar to that effect. then you had click46 + me & fireworks = many, many kittah .gifs.

good times :)

also here’s the original image
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/4900/catbusiness.gif

Tomberry
Jan 26, 2010 at 12:30PM UTC , Tomberry wrote:

Thank you very much mr Brett. That’s a great source of information and help you’ve provided with your message.

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