"Jia Junpeng, your mom is calling you to come home and eat."
September 6, 2009 12:28 PM   Subscribe

China's latest Internet obsession began with an anonymous post on a computer gaming forum: "Jia Junpeng, your mom is calling you to come home and eat."

After attracting more than 17,000 replies in six hours, the original message went on to appear in All Your Base-style photoshops and on t-shirts amid claims by internet marketing experts that they invented the whole thing.

Why did the joke travel so fast and so wide? Childhood memories, according to China Daily. Or maybe it was because of a team of secret viral "internet promoters".

See also: Toyota's co-opting of the Leeroy Jenkins World of Warcraft video, Russia's Preved! bear and all your memes.
posted by tapeguy (34 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Even the state-run China Daily felt it necessary to weigh in with an editorial that called the spectacle "a demonstration of collective boredom."


Shit, they totally have our number.
posted by The Whelk at 12:37 PM on September 6, 2009


MetaFilter: a demonstration of collective boredom.
posted by loquacious at 12:41 PM on September 6, 2009 [10 favorites]


putin v walrus.
posted by boo_radley at 12:45 PM on September 6, 2009 [5 favorites]




Using the Internet protocol address of the original post, they contacted a high school student in Nanjing. He denied having anything to do with it -- though he begged people to stop telling him to go home and eat.

HA! That's some funny stuff.
posted by ColdChef at 12:53 PM on September 6, 2009


This sounds familiar:
"Ten years ago, only the elite used the Internet," said Fang Xingdong, an information technology analyst and blogger. "Now we have 300 million Internet users. There's a new element that isn't very educated. It seems like any website my 12-year-old son likes gets venture capitalists investing in it. Any website I like runs out of money."
posted by ColdChef at 12:54 PM on September 6, 2009 [1 favorite]


I can't read this article. It has an Obama in it.
posted by srboisvert at 1:35 PM on September 6, 2009 [2 favorites]


Metafilter: Come home and eat.
posted by Splunge at 1:43 PM on September 6, 2009


From the article:
The original post, which was left on a World of Warcraft forum the morning of July 16, has generated more than 300,000 responses.

Which, is intriguing, because WoW was down in China for over a month. I suppose that'd leave any good WoW player with a lot of free time on their hands.
posted by graventy at 1:44 PM on September 6, 2009


I'm torn between this one and this one, myself.
posted by The Whelk at 2:06 PM on September 6, 2009 [1 favorite]


I'm still interested in finding out if this was genuine or if it was set up by marketers. If it was the latter, what were they trying to sell? The World of Warcraft operator transition from The9 to NetEase?
posted by tapeguy at 2:15 PM on September 6, 2009


What you're seeing here isn't a meme, but loneliness.
posted by klue at 2:22 PM on September 6, 2009 [8 favorites]


Great, now I have the title of this movie repeating in my mind's ear in a sing-song voice.
Thanks.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 2:32 PM on September 6, 2009


Metafilter: What you're seeing here isn't a meme, but loneliness
posted by dortmunder at 2:36 PM on September 6, 2009


OH CRAP sorry Mom I'll be there in ten minutes!

I hope it's meatloaf!
posted by Metroid Baby at 3:20 PM on September 6, 2009 [1 favorite]


Everything about this story is hilarious to me. What I find most funny of all is that this single sentenced isn't entirely unique on the internet - it's a pretty common gag on anonymous imageboards to reply to someone who's being overly serious or fighty with "Josh, mom says to get off the computer we're going to Olive Garden" or something similar. Maybe this Jia Junpeng thing took off because the thread started with such a sentence? Who knows.

Also see: Yukkuri.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:36 PM on September 6, 2009 [1 favorite]


Some netizen started a human flesh search using the original poster’s IP address. The search discovered that on the internet there are two matching identities, one who is presently in Haidian of Beijing selling books, and the other is in some construction group in Zhenjiang of Jiangsu province. However, neither can be verified.


A human flesh search? Really?


Where can I sign up for one of those? Sounds hot.
posted by lazaruslong at 3:36 PM on September 6, 2009


I wonder if "human flesh search" is idiomatically parallel to "meatspace"?
posted by hattifattener at 4:09 PM on September 6, 2009


I did a human flesh search, and found it. It was under the bed.
posted by nonspecialist at 4:13 PM on September 6, 2009


"human flesh search" would be crowdsourcing in Web2.0 speak.
posted by tksh at 4:47 PM on September 6, 2009


A human flesh search? Really?

It's what's for dinner.
posted by Smart Dalek at 4:52 PM on September 6, 2009 [1 favorite]


And oh, brother Zeng approves of klue's original and refreshing comment.
posted by tksh at 4:59 PM on September 6, 2009


I run a firewall on all my human flesh so its IP number can't be tracked.
posted by tapeguy at 5:00 PM on September 6, 2009


Metafilter: I'm just here to buy soy sauce.
posted by turgid dahlia at 5:26 PM on September 6, 2009


China could use a little more triumph of the mundane, absurd, and harmless.
posted by fleacircus at 5:34 PM on September 6, 2009 [1 favorite]


Metafilter: Human flesh? It's what's for dinner.
posted by Splunge at 6:28 PM on September 6, 2009


Sorry, still searching.
posted by Human Flesh at 6:43 PM on September 6, 2009 [4 favorites]


I hear in China they eat LOLCATS.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 8:01 PM on September 6, 2009 [3 favorites]


The human flesh search engine thing is kind of interesting and scary phenomenon in general. It's basically crowd sourcing to dig up enough information about someone in order to locate people offline. It's been used to uncover corrupt government officials, but also to conduct witch hunts. Rebecca MacKinnon has written an interesting piece on how it fits into Chinese history.
posted by gemmy at 8:39 PM on September 6, 2009 [5 favorites]


gemmy: The English speaking world has one as well. It's 4chan's /b/ and assorted *chan's /i/ boards. This is their web presence, here is their page on gathering info (it's like a creepy-ass Stalking 101).

What we're seeing across the web, whether it be 2ch in Japan, 4chan in English, or whatever the heck they use in China, is an emphasis on social networks that combine anonymity and memes, the result being a sort of hive-mind. It's really fascinating to watch ideas/memes fail and succeed in a sort of information natural selection. Anyone that thinks this is some kind of viral marketing is deeply misguided. These are kids "doing it for the lulz", and an entirely new way of social organization, this is completely leaderless and their memes and attacks feel like a force of nature than a person/organization that has agency. It tends to be purely mediated and selected by cultural undercurrents.
posted by amuseDetachment at 8:54 PM on September 6, 2009 [3 favorites]


'Flesh' is one of those words that start to sound weirdly meaningless and incantatory and to make your brain melt the more you repeat them. Flesh. Flesh. Human Flehhhhhsh. Flllllllesh.

*brain melts*
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:07 PM on September 6, 2009


2ch in Japan, 4chan in English, or whatever the heck they use in China

Tianya would be the closest equivalent to 2ch. I don't think 4chan ranks up there though

The WoW Baidu bar often spearheads "human flesh search" campaigns. Last year they led two crusades tracking down teenie boyband fans and ruined their lives.
posted by fatehunter at 9:08 PM on September 6, 2009


I just wonder if you shouldn't feel
Less concern about the deep unreal
The very first word is "How do you do?"
The last "Go home, your mama's calling you"
posted by twoleftfeet at 11:36 PM on September 6, 2009


Human flesh search? Ask.MeatFilter!
posted by notashroom at 8:25 AM on September 7, 2009


« Older GQ bans Moscow blast article, bloggers catch up   |   "the events in Postoloprty" Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments