Modern Primate

Geoffrey, can you come in here?

- Yes, sir.

Geoffrey, have you seen this video that shows how Aaron Sorkin has re-used his own dialog over and over among his various properties?

- Mmmhmm. Saw it yesterday. Not bad.

Do you think I should post it on Modern Primate?

- Why?

Well I’ve seen it on The Daily What, Reddit, and BuzzFeed. It’s what’s trending. It’s a big viral hit that everybody’s talking about.

- Are they though? What are they saying about it?

Just that he’s not that creative or original, and that the video is entertaining and you should watch it.

- And what do you have to add to the conversation?

Just that he’s not that creative or original, and that the video is entertaining and you should watch it.

- So, nothing then.

But that’s all that anyone is doing! They just repost stuff they found that’s already going viral somewhere else!

- So most of these top viral media aggregators are just echoing each others echos without performing much of a value-add, eh?

I suppose not.

- Chris, do you remember that conversation we had before, about not stooping to everyone else’s level?

Yeah.

- Remember how you said that if all you wanted to do was try to rake in the most traffic possible, you’d create a clone of 9gag, TheMetaPicture, or any of the other blogs that do nothing but repost already-viral images while scrubbing attribution.

Remind me again why I’m not doing that?

- Because you’ve got integrity, damn it!

It’s just… it all used to seem so much easier before. Everything that I thought I knew about how and why different things went viral turned out to be dependent on the distribution platforms that I was already plugged into. I could take a picture of my shoe after you’ve treated it like your personal litterbox and, given the right network, that literal shit would be viral before sundown.

- First of all, don’t underestimate the comedic genius of my shitting in your shoes. I personally think it’s one of my better works. But seriously though, I know what you mean. You could just scrape 50 of the best images ever to hit Reddit’s front page, give it a name like “49 of the Most Awe-Inspiring Feats of Human Achievement” and if you post it on Modern Primate it won’t perform nearly like it would if it were posted on some of the other sites you’ve worked for. They’re giants. Your site is a scrappy up-and-comer. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?

Yeah. I just got a little spoiled, ya know? I took that built-in network for granted. I should have known at the time that it wasn’t about the content itself, but how that content is distributed.

- Well now you know.

Still, I’m tempted to test your theory.

- You wouldn’t.

Watch me.

Previously: Discussing the Popularity of Zombies with my Cat Geoffrey