Cool Sites - Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle/Hillary Is Mom Jeans

While this week's cool sites might not be as calculatingly awesome as some of the flashier ones that have popped up over this election cycle, they do have one thing going for them. What they lack in technical whiz-bang, they make up for by effectively capture the most important voting block of all: fans of Internet memes.

These two sites, writer Matthew Honan's Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle and Jacob Walker's Hillary Is Mom Jeans, both strive to hammer home the same message: Barack Obama is cool kid, while Hillary Clinton is more of the student government square. Admittedly, these aren't exactly fresh topics; however, what the sites lack in originality of message, they more than make up for with intriguing delivery. Visitors to the sites (a membership which I hope, by now, includes you, dear readers) are greeted by little more than a giant hyperlinked statement regarding what makes Obama cool and/or Hillary lame. These phrases are generally life-affirming and nonsensical. For instance, Obama's site is filling with Christ-like examples of generosity ("Barack Obama sent you flowers", "Barack Obama helped you move a sofa"), while the Clinton site focuses on behavior normally associated with terrible roommates rather than presidential candidates ("Hillary forgot to water your plants", "Hillary works for Blackwater").

Now, why do these sites work? For one, they appeal to the surreality that seems to be inherent in Internet humor. In fact, these sites are far better examples of Internet humor than they are of political humor. The jokes here aren't focused on policy, issues, or even the ongoing campaign; rather, they're tangentially connected to the public's general opinion of the candidates. This sort of presentation could just as easily have been assigned to another well known figure a la the Chuck Norris joke movement. The fact that they happen to be about politicians gives us campaign junkies all the more reasons to smile.

Secondly, the presentation has a big impact. Many online humor sites are bogged down with non-optional streaming video, bulky Flash pages, and content that prizes involved style over substance and, importantly, frequent updates. With the minimalist presentation, the creators are allowed to focus on crafting a catchy meme that is memorable and easily repeatable. I would argue that this is the same kind of approach that we see in most successful online memes.

Another important factor in the success of these sites as memes is audience participation. Although it is the newer of the two sites, Hillary Is Mom Jeans might actually win the day in this regard. While Honan's site has the virtue of being the originator of the style, Walker made a crucial improvement to his site's layout: the addition of a user-submission box. Rather than generating all of the content internally like the Obama site (which doesn't even feature Honan's contact information, let alone a submission section), the Clinton site encourages audience ownership of ongoing creation. This factor is key for the success of any would-be viral movement, and it's nice to see this particular meme moving quickly in that direction.

it also appears that Honan approves as well, stating in a TechBlog interview that "Jacob Walker created this great parody site of BOIYNB. He really nailed it, I think. It's a riot, but it also demonstrates why her campaign is in trouble".

Quite right on all accounts, Mr. Honan. Quite right.