Supercool Creative

Memes and Marketing: An Interview with the Creator of the ‘Nigel Thornberry’ Meme

If you’ve been on Twitter recently, you may have noticed that one of the top trending topics has been “Nigel Thornberry.” Kids and parents of the 90s and early 2000s recognize this name as the father character on Nickelodeon’s The Wild Thornberrys (1998-2004), but what could bring such popularity to a character from a show that ended seven years ago?

The answer: Sam Antonioli, a 17-year-old high schooler from a small northwestern town, also known as BitCrunch on YouTube. As he explains in the video below, earlier this weekend, he and some Internet friends found an amusing sound clip on Tumblr from The Wild Thornberrys of Nigel Thornberry (voiced by Tim Curry) incoherently grumbling. He was inspired to remix Katy Perry’s hit “Firework” with the sound clip, posted the video to Tumblr, and a meme was born. The original Tumblr post has since been reblogged tens of thousands of times, “Nigel Thornberry” has been trending on Twitter for more than 23 hours so far, many have gotten in on the meme with their remixes of popular songs, and tons of animated gifs and image macros are flooding the web. In just a few days, it’s become a hugely popular meme, taking the online world by storm.

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Taking Tips from James Franco & Guy Kawasaki: How to ‘Enchant’ Using Social Media

“My thought was, ‘This is my Twitter. I can do whatever I want,’” Franco said. “But certain companies I work with contacted me about what I was saying.”

This was Franco’s statement to the press in response to the deletion of his Twitter account on April 1, 2011.

It makes sense that Franco, forever in the spotlight and under the microscope, was not allowed to express himself any which way he wanted, but who’s to say that we can’t learn from his brilliant and captivating use of social media?

Adding over 10,000 new Twitter followers every day, James Franco had his audience enchanted.

This is a concept that Guy Kawasaki explores in his novel, Enchantment.  To ‘enchant’ someone is to “delight [them] with a product, service, organization, or idea;” therefore, acquiring “voluntary and long-lasting support.”

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