Internet Nostalgia

Let’s Revisit “Snakes on a Plane”

Trying to monetize a “viral” hit is hard.

Welcome to part 18 of our Internet Nostalgia series, which looks back at phenomena that captured the internet’s imagination and attention for a fleeting moment and then vanished as everyone moved on to something else. This series looks back at those olden times and what they told us about the internet and ourselves. If you have a suggested topic, email me at williamfleitch@yahoo.com. Last week: The “Downfall” memes. This week: Snakes on a Plane.

Date: August 2006.

The Story: It is telling, and indicative of what was to come, that when word got out that Samuel L. Jackson was going to be in a movie called Snakes on a Plane, no one believed it was true. “I feel sorry for all those people that are going through that whole trip of ‘Why would Samuel Jackson do something like this?’ and ‘It’s lowbrow,’” Jackson said. “It’s a movie. People go to movies on Saturday to get away from the war in Iraq and taxes and election news and pedophiles online and just go and have some fun and I like doing movies that are fun.” But the concept was so ridiculous. Samuel L. Jackson, snakes, an airplane. That’s the whole movie? Insane! And in 2006, when we saw something insane, we immediately, almost reflexively, constructed an ironic…