A single local news interview can launch accidental internet celebrity within hours.

Evidence

In January 2016, Tulsa resident Michelle Dobyne gave an eyewitness account to local television news network News On 6 after her apartment complex caught fire. In the interview, a verbal snippet from the sassy Dobyne caught the attention of the television crew at once and they reposted the video clip on their Facebook page: “[My neighbor] said, ‘The building is on fire!’ I said, ‘no what?!’ I got my three kids and we bounced out… Nuh-uh, we ain’t gonna be in no fire. Not today”. In a matter of hours, the clip was circulated so widely that Dobyne went viral and became memorialized as a meme overnight. In the next few days, Dobyne’s audiovisual snippet was auto-tuned into dozens of remixes and covers, and bootleg merchandise bearing screengrabs of her face from the news interview and her signature catchphrase began circulating widely on the internet. Other news networks purchased the rights to rescreen the snippet and pursued follow-up stories on the development of Dobyne’s story, while popular, vernacular, and critical commentary on her newfound fame crowded discursive spaces on the internet. In the weeks that followed, News On 6 returned to the streets in search of Dobyne to provide follow-up interviews. — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity, 151

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Mundane everyday skills can generate internet celebrity rivaling elite talents — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame…, 134; Television could manufacture overnight celebrities from ordinary contestants. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 482

Broader Connections

• Mundane everyday skills can generate internet celebrity rivaling elite talents #expands (0.78) — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity, 134
• Television could manufacture overnight celebrities from ordinary contestants. #exemplifies (0.72) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 482