A bunch of us Internet Famous cats were lucky enough to skip out on class last night and get down on some Fake NY Times fun. Here are some photos from last nights fun and today’s insanity.

For more photos —> http://www.flickr.com/conwayl

Well hello there, branded content. 15-year-old spaz vlogger Fred — the 3rd most subscribed person on YouTube (>500k) — has cut a promo deal for 21st Century Fox’s new movie “City of Embers.” More from the Wall Street Journal:

The “Ember” effort is different [from other viral movie-marketing campaigns], though, because it uses an already established YouTube star to endorse the film. “They are using the credibility that this guy has with a specific audience,” says Lars Bastholm, co-chief creative officer at AKQA, a San Francisco digital-advertising company not involved with the campaign. “By not being so overt and making it look like he’s discovering the film for his audience, it comes across as less pushy.”

Our favorite reigning chocolate just released an intimate Q&A in which he responds to fans’ burning questions. Some gems:

“what’s it like to be an Internet celebrity?”

• no vacation time
• YouTube competition is getting fierce
• lots of pressure because “the heat is something you don’t want to run away from”

“why do you think people liked Chocolate Rain?”

• claims it’s one part lols, one part Barry White Shock & Awe, and “20%” people seriously connecting with the lyrics (roflmao)
• a departure from his traditional “I think it started on 4chan” answer1 FLIPFLOP ALERT

The reign is still killing it — 70k subscribers, #19 most subscribed musician, #68 overall — and what you say? He’s not just on YouTube, peep this header graphic!!

That, sir, is innovative famo marketeering: tayface.com redirects to his Facebook? followtay.com redirects to his Twitter? Tay has a twitter? Created August 6 son:

→ more famoblog Tay Zonday coverage

Update: also check out Josh Cohen of Tilzy.tv interviewing Tay Zonday. Josh throws curveballs but Tay’s still hitting homers.

Graffiti Research Lab founder & Internet Famous Class co-prof James Powderly has been detained by Chinese authorities for planning pro-Tibet protests, along with Brian Conley of Alive in Baghdad and 4 others (the “Beijing 6″)

We are continually posting new information on FFFFF.AT Lab

Some coverage on Rocketboom:

Magibon #23. She’s all dolled up & rocking a fan for that hot hot summer. 14k views and 630 comments less than 24 hours after posting. Magi consistently breaks 500k views within a week of posting — she’s no Fred, but still impressive. ^_^. O_o. I think I’m doing that wrong.

Tinaec’s new look. Note her increasingly pimped out MySpace profile, with almost 20 new wall comments per day. Not shabby. But when’s the album dropping? Seriously guys.

And don’t forget to check out my new haircut:

Julia Allison can’t act. She can’t sing. She’s not rich. But thanks to a genius for self-promotion, she’s become an Internet celebrity.
– Jason Tanz

See also: Rex Sorgatz on “The Microfame Game” in New York Magazine

IFC’s Good Morning Internet! takes a swipe at viral videos and goes viral itself. (if you write it, it’s true)

A bit tl;dr at 9 minutes long, but they’ve got thehill88, and the ever-contagious dance sequence. And check out that thumbnail… is that… Spongebob wedged in cleavage?

via Brad O’Farrell

NYU PhD student Alice Marwick delivered an excellent keynote on Day 2 of ROFLCon last weekend, where LOLs and anecdotes were in abundance. Presenting some of her work on “social status and elitism in Web 2.0″ Marwick brought a badly needed breath of critical analysis to the conference.

Ideas that stuck out to us, expanded by her recently released lecture notes.

A taxonomy of celebrity

• careerist promoters: people who maintain an internet presence to further their offline careers or activities. e.g. Julia Allison
• creative promoters: “seeking recognition based on what they create, not just their own persona.” e.g. Ze Frank, Robert Scoble
• self promoters: “people who are promoters, but they’re promoting themselves as a product.” “scenequeens of Buzznet” cited; sure Tila Tequila falls in here too.
• reluctant celebrities: “someone with no desire to become famous can become notorious very quickly… some end up enjoying their newfound fame, others find it disturbing, distressing, and even deeply troubling.” e.g. Star Wars Kid

Clash b/w Internet humor and IRL humor

• “Internet humor isn’t universal humor. It’s localized.”
• e.g. the real world did not find the 8th-inning Mets rickroll very funny.
• Also, Jimmy Kimmel appearances of Internet celebs like Tay Zonday and StSanders aren’t received so well by the audience. Audience doesn’t get it, and Kimmel never tries to explain. Maybe because he doesn’t get it either?

Fame as a drug of validation

• “Educational programs that emphasize self-esteem have created a generation of narcissists.”
• Cited in Alice’s talk, Jake Halpern’s book Fame Junkies details fame lust at length, and in particular highlights the notion kids today perceive it to “easier than ever” to become “famous”… which is a big part of why we call it “famo” around here.

The logical followup to “Cherry Chocolate Rain”, aka I Move Away From The Mic To Sell Out.

p.s. don’t forget to cast your vote: Tay Zonday for Paris Hilton’s new BFF!

“I’ve got 153 million views under my belt… I know what I’m doing.”

Chris Crocker’s dropping a potential deal with “the network” (VH1?)… cuz he wouldn’t be allowed to curse.

You’ll recall Lonelygirl15 was killed off after the first “season” after actress Jessica Rose moved on to better and brighter things. But this here BloodCell preview is doing 100k views since it was posted two weeks ago, no slouch for a web drama. Will it be better than Quarter Life?

worstpreviews.com sez:

Jessica Lee Rose, better known as YouTube’s Lonelygirl15, has been desperately trying to break into Hollywood. Her first movie was the Lindsay Lohan Razzie-winner “I Know Who Killed Me” and her next film is a wrestling drama, entitled “Perfect Sport.” Even though her movie career is borderline disastrous, she had a bit more luck in television, starring as Jen on ABC Family’s “Greek.”

Last weekend Andrew Baron put his Twitter account (and its 1600 followers) for sale on eBay.

Account sales happens all the time in World of Warcraft. Selling customer lists is semi-standard practice among headhunters, and last year a Top 100 Digger attempted to sell his account. But Andrew’s Twitter account sale is stirring up a lot of discussion: about the value we place on an “authentic” account, about the value of its audience, and even questions about the value of a service where you can amass and broadcast to 20,000 “friends” just by clicking a lot. To wit: here at Famo we’ve demonstrated proof-of-concept Friend-O-Matic software that can help you on your way to this, and can assure you that many, many others have done similarly (more on this to come)

Business Week weighs in:

Was a Twitter account “property” he could sell? Did it belong to him since its value stems from the people who follow him? What are the ethical issues of selling access to people who have put their trust in you?
…
The flurry of interest around his account has actually made Baron more interested in continuing to use it. Since the bidding started, 300 new followers have signed up to follow Baron’s account. More important, the communication through Twitter has grown much more provocative and interesting than it had been before. “At first I got a lot of responses where people were shocked,” says Baron. “But I started to communicate with them and they were laughing about the idea. That’s what I want more than anything—[better] interaction on Twitter. Now I am overwhelmed with all of this back and forth.”

More coverage: TechMeme chatter, TechCrunch