10 Internet Trends That Got Way Out Of Hand

The internet is a strange place. When things get out of hand, you just have to roll with the punches, like the unlucky main characters from The Wrong Mans by Hulu.

1. The Balloon Boy Hoax

Via gifsoup.com

In 2009, the web exploded with a report from two hysterical parents that their six-year-old boy was flying across the country trapped in a massive balloon. Almost immediately, memes and Twitter accounts rose to the occasion before being shut down when it was all revealed to be a cheap publicity stunt.

2. 4Chan Declared War on Snow

Via mikelacher.com

As a joke, someone created an Anonymous-style poster that convinced quite a few people that 4chan was actually attempting to wage war on snow, resulting in widespread embarrassment for the human race.

3. #nowthatchersdead

Slaven Vlasic / Getty Images

#NowThatchersDead began as a way for haters to celebrate the death of Margaret Thatcher, the former U.K. prime minister. Of course, the hashtag quickly became confused with #NowThatChersDead, causing everyone to think that Cher was the one who actually died.

4. Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro

BuzzFeed / Via s-is-the-most-epic-brand-meltdown-on-facebook-ever

The owners of Amy's Baking Company took control of their Facebook page to deal with unruly commenters, and just completely lost control. What resulted was perhaps the most epic brand meltdown in internet history.

5. The Great Government Shutdown of 2013

Via theninjabrownie.tumblr.com

Of course, the United States government couldn't shut down without expecting the internet to take full advantage of the situation. Check out some of the best reactions here.

6. The San Francisco Hating Entrepreneur

nehaaaaapa / Via instagram.com

Peter Shih, a San Francisco-based entrepreneur, wrote a blog post bashing San Francisco, which ended up making him a lot of enemies. Soon, most of the San Francisco community was basically calling for his removal. One company even granted him a free one-way ticket back to New York.

7. The CEO of Whole Foods on Internet Forums

Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman / MCT

Posing anonymously from 1999 as "Rahodeb" on a Yahoo stock-exchange forum, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey not only shamelessly praised himself and his company, but also didn't hesitate to bash competitors when the opportunity arose. It was pretty embarrassing when he got found out.

8. Batfleck

Photo illustration by John Gara for BuzzFeed / Via buzzfeed.com

The internet was NOT happy when Ben Affleck was chosen to replace Christian Bale as Batman in the upcoming Superman vs. Batman movie.

9. HealthCare.gov's Facebook Page

healthcare.gov / Via buzzfeed.com

When HealthCare.gov experienced some technical issues getting off the ground, the internet chose to express its feelings on HealthCare.gov's Facebook page. Here are just a few of the sentiments people shared on the page.

10. The Pronunciation Book Conspiracy

PronunciationBook / Via youtube.com

When this mysterious YouTube pronunciation guide started counting down from the number 77, people started coming up with ridiculous conspiracy theories, some of which predicted a financial collapse as well as a Battlestar Galactica reboot, to explain what was actually going on. When it was revealed that it was actually a piece of performance art linked to the infamous @Horse_ebooks Twitter account, people completely lost their minds.