Overly Attached Girlfriend

Last updated

Overly Attached Girlfriend
Laina Morris by Gage Skidmore.jpg
Laina Morris, the "Overly Attached Girlfriend", posing with Grumpy Cat at the 2014 VidCon in Anaheim, California
Created byLaina Morris
Portrayed byLaina Morris
External videos
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Laina's original video that started the Overly Attached Girlfriend character

Overly Attached Girlfriend (OAG) is a fictional character and an Internet meme originating in a YouTube video published on June 6, 2012. The character was created by Laina Morris (born June 22, 1991). The video was a submission to a contest held by Justin Bieber who challenged fans to create a "Girlfriend" counterpart to his hit song "Boyfriend". The video, which satirized elements of the Bieber song that have been perceived as clingy, featured Morris staring at the camera with a fixed smile while singing about Facebook-stalking her boyfriend and other themes. [1]

Contents

In 2019, Morris announced her departure from YouTube and posted a video on July 24, 2019, detailing that she is no longer going to make videos and is quitting YouTube altogether. She talked about the depression and anxiety that she experienced off camera. Prior to this announcement, she had only posted one video to YouTube in the previous two years. [2] In April 2021, an image of the Overly Attached Girlfriend was sold as an NFT for $411,000. [3]

Popularity

As of December 2021, her YouTube channel has more than 1.25 million subscribers and more than 161 million views. Her username is still "wzr0713" officially, but her display name now identifies her as "Laina". Her video was noticed by the social news website reddit and quickly became popular, gaining more than 170,000 views the first day. [4]

Arising from the success of the video, 'OAG' became an Internet meme that features the image macro of the young woman featured in the video, smiling and staring maniacally at the camera that has been captioned in a way that portrays her to be a stalker, jealous, or committed to her love interest to an unhealthy degree. [5] The image still came from the video and was made into an image macro which also became very popular and spread across many social media websites [6] and was remixed in various ways. [7] [8]

During 2021, the still macro image was converted into an NFT and sold by Morris. [9]

Morris continued to produce further videos, approximately one a week. While some featured the OAG persona, many branched out from the OAG format, including charity fundraising and attempts to interview celebrities on the red carpet at the AMAs. Exactly a year after the initial JB fan video, Morris had over 595,000 subscribers and 76,500,000 views on YouTube. A week after, her subscriber count went up to 605,000 and the views rose to 77,400,000, with the initial JB fan video holding 15,600,000 of those views and her follow-up CRJ fan video holding 18,600,000 views.[ citation needed ]

Overly Attached Girlfriend on YouTube

On June 18, 2012, another video, in which the Overly Attached Girlfriend sang a parody of Carly Rae Jepsen song "Call Me Maybe", also became very popular. [10] Morris has also made videos of Drake's "The Motto", a lip-synced medley of the "stalker songs" "Every Breath You Take" by The Police, "As Long as You Love Me" by Backstreet Boys, "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne, "Your Love Is My Drug" by Ke$ha, "Just Got Started Lovin' You" by James Otto, and "You Belong with Me" by Taylor Swift. [11] A parody of Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" was uploaded on December 17, 2012. A parody of "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction uploaded on January 14, 2013, was done not as OAG. [12] [13] "Snapchat," a parody of "Blurred Lines," was uploaded on July 4, 2013. Morris has also been featured in videos by Shane Dawson, Tyler Oakley and TheBrothersReidell among others, and has been featured in a Teens React by TheFineBros. She continued to bring out new videos every Thursday, often using her signature "smile". On June 6, 2013, she uploaded a video featuring a montage of clips from her past uploads, reactions by viewers, and television appearances, to celebrate the first anniversary of the original OAG video. [14]

On June 13, 2013, she uploaded her first political video, a parody of the U.S. national anthem in which she is dressed as Uncle Sam and sings about watching you through Skype, Facebook, and Google because she "cares" but does not mention the current NSA leaking controversy specifically. [15]

On May 20, 2015, Delta Air Lines posted a safety video that included OAG and other Internet memes. [16]

On July 25, 2019, Morris uploaded a video announcing her retirement from YouTube. Morris has cited multiple reasons for the announcement, including depression, stress and mental health. [17]

On June 6, 2022, Morris uploaded a video celebrating the 10th anniversary of the meme while thanking her fans for support. She appears both in and out of character in the clip. [18]

Identity of Overly Attached Girlfriend

The user behind the meme is Laina Morris from Denton, Texas, [19] [20] [21] [22] and has been named by Mashable as one of "15 People Made Famous by the Internet in 2012". [23] She identifies herself in videos only as Laina with many articles leaving out her last name on her request. [24] Morris has tried to add to the "Overly Attached" image by showcasing a gentler, more playful side. This has involved a new "attachment" to her Kia Soul, [25] comedy skits on "LifeAccordingToJimmy", reporting from the red carpet at the American Music Awards, [26] videos starring her dogs Luna and Gilly, and "Dare to Share" for charity. [24] [27] [28] [29] [30]

She did revisit the character but with a twist, playing an "Overly Attached Computer" on November 12, 2012, in a commercial published by Samsung displaying its 840 SSD. [31] The reaction was mixed with some labeling her a sell-out and others applauding the move to creating a career from her "meme". [32] [33] [34] On September 25, 2013, Morris appeared with Good Girl Gina, Sheltered College Freshman, and Bad Luck Brian in a "Meme Hunters" commercial for RealPlayer Cloud. [35]

Despite the "Overly Attached Girlfriend" being portrayed as a crazed hopeless romantic, Morris confirmed on a viewer fan mail episode on January 22, 2015, that she was in a relationship at that time. [36]

Appearances

On March 11, 2013, Morris appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon . [37] In May 2013, Morris won a staring contest with Jessica Alba at the Singapore Social Awards, presented by Starcount. [38] In December 2013, she was a guest on The Nerdist podcast with Chris Hardwick. She appeared with the Epic Meal Time team in the 2013 YouTube Rewind. She appeared on TableTop playing Cards Against Humanity .

Related Research Articles

OAG or Oag may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">You Wouldn't Steal a Car</span> Anti–copyright infringement campaign

"You Wouldn't Steal a Car" is the first sentence of a public service announcement that debuted on July 27, 2004, which was part of the anti-copyright infringement campaign "Piracy. It's a crime." It was created by the Federation Against Copyright Theft and the Motion Picture Association of America in cooperation with the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, and appeared in theaters internationally from 2004 until 2008, and on many commercial DVDs during the same period as an ad preceding the main menu, as either an unskippable or skippable video.

<i>Keyboard Cat</i> Internet meme

Keyboard Cat is a video-based internet meme. Its original form was a video made in 1984 by Charlie Schmidt of his cat Fatso seemingly playing a musical keyboard to a cheery tune. While Schmidt had uploaded the video himself to YouTube in 2007, Brad O'Farrell, with Schmidt's permission, appended the video to the end of a blooper video uploaded in 2009 as if to have the cat "play" the person offstage after the gaffe as they had done in vaudeville. The idea of this quickly expanded on the Internet by numerous other users, typically under the name "Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat", and became a popular meme on YouTube.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Techno Viking</span> Internet meme that went viral in 2007

Techno Viking is an internet phenomenon or meme based on a video from the 2000 Fuckparade in Berlin, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlie Bit My Finger</span> 2007 Internet viral video

"Charlie bit my finger – again!", more simply known as "Charlie Bit My Finger" or "Charlie Bit Me", is a 2007 internet viral video famous for being at the time the most viewed YouTube video. As of October 2022, the video received over 897 million views. In May 2021, the video was sold as an NFT at auction for over $700,000.

Catherine "Catie" Wayne is an American Internet celebrity, vlogger and voice actress best known for her character Boxxy in her highly energetic vlogs. Her rise in popularity began in late 2008 and early 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friday (Rebecca Black song)</span> 2011 single by Rebecca Black

"Friday" is the debut single by American pop singer Rebecca Black, written and produced by Los Angeles record producers Clarence Jey and Patrice Wilson. The song's music video was released on February 10, 2011; it was officially released as a single on the iTunes Store on March 14, 2011. The song features a rap verse from Wilson, which was uncredited on the single. Its music video caught a sudden surge of hits after Mystery Science Theater 3000 and RiffTrax comedian Michael J. Nelson called it "the worst video ever made" on Twitter and the song was featured on the Tosh.0 blog. The song's reception was highly negative, and it was parodied by numerous artists and comedians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nyan Cat</span> 2011 Internet meme

Nyan Cat is a YouTube video uploaded in April 2011, which became an Internet meme. The video merged a Japanese pop song with an animated cartoon cat with a Pop-Tart for a torso flying through space and leaving a rainbow trail behind. The video ranked at number five on the list of most viewed YouTube videos in 2011.

jacksfilms American YouTuber (born 1988)

John Patrick Douglass, better known as jacksfilms, is an American YouTuber, videographer, and sketch comedian, best known for his series Yesterday I Asked You and Your Grammar Sucks, in which he commentates on content sent by fans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CaptainSparklez</span> American YouTuber (born 1992)

Jordan Maron, known online as CaptainSparklez, is an American YouTuber and Twitch streamer mainly known for his Minecraft videos. As of January 2024, his main YouTube channel has over 11.4 million subscribers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hannah Hart</span> American internet personality, comedian, author, and actress

Hannah Maud Hart is an American internet personality, comedian, author, and actress. She is known for starring in My Drunk Kitchen, a weekly series on YouTube in which she cooks something while intoxicated. She also runs a second channel where she talks about life in general and gives her opinions on various topics. She co-produced and starred in the independent comedy film Camp Takota, released in 2014. She wrote a parody cookbook which was a New York Times bestseller for five weeks in August–September 2014. She is a 2017 recipient of the Alex Awards.

Ebony Day is an English singer, songwriter and YouTube personality living in London, England. In 2013 Ebony won MTV's Brand New Artist competition previously won by Justin Bieber and Conor Maynard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bad Luck Brian</span> American internet celebrity (born 1989)

Kyle Edward Craven, commonly known by his Internet nickname "Bad Luck Brian", is an American Internet celebrity known for his ubiquitous photo posted on Reddit in 2012, which quickly became a popular Internet meme. Bad Luck Brian is an image macro style of meme. His captions describe a variety of unlucky, embarrassing and tragic events.

<i>Shrek</i> fandom Fandom of the Shrek franchise

DreamWorks Animation's Shrek franchise, based on William Steig's book of the same name, has an underground Internet fandom that started around 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">We Are Number One</span> 2014 song from childrens show LazyTown

"We Are Number One" is a song from the English-language Icelandic children's television series LazyTown, composed by Máni Svavarsson. The song was featured in the twelfth episode of the show's fourth season, entitled "Robbie's Dream Team", which is the 76th episode overall, and the penultimate episode of the series.

James Jackson, known professionally by his online alias Onision, is an American YouTuber. His primary YouTube channel, "Onision", featured sketches and satirical clips; videos posted to his other channels focus on personal stories covering controversial topics as well as discussion with his viewers. His activity both online and offline has attracted controversy and criticism from online media outlets and viewers alike, as well as many allegations of abuse, sexual grooming of minors and rape.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">It's Over 9000!</span> Internet meme stemming from a quote in Dragon Ball Z

"It's Over 9000!", also known as simply "Over 9000!", is an Internet meme that became popular in 2006, involving a change made for English localizations of an episode of the Dragon Ball Z anime television series titled "The Return of Goku", which originally aired on April 19, 1997. The phrase is typically used as an innumerable quantifier to describe a large quantity of something. Variations of the phrase are also employed as a form of trolling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Side Eyeing Chloe</span> Internet meme from 2013

Chloe Clem, commonly known by her Internet nickname "Side Eyeing Chloe", is an American Internet celebrity known for her concerned-looking reaction, which became a popular Internet meme in 2013.

References

  1. ↑ Wenjia Zhao. "Rise of the Overly Attached Girlfriend". Forbes , June 14, 2012.
  2. ↑ "Breaking Up with You...Tube". www.youtube.com.
  3. ↑ "'Side-eyeing Chloe' Clem to sell iconic meme as NFT". www.bbc.co.uk. September 23, 2021.
  4. ↑ Ileana Llorens. "Overly Attached Girlfriend: Justin Bieber Fan Creates 'Boyfriend' Parody About Attached Girlfriend". Huffington Post , June 8, 2012.
  5. ↑ George Jones. "Viral: Do not date this girl ... ever". Archived November 2, 2013, at the Wayback Machine WIS , June 14, 2012.
  6. ↑ Fruzsina Eördögh. "Bieber girlfriend contest spawns Overly Attached Girlfriend meme". The Daily Dot , June 7, 2012.
  7. ↑ Lorraine Murphy. "The Morning GIF: Overly Attached Girlfriend". The Daily Dot , June 8, 2012.
  8. ↑ Alexander Abad-Santos, Jen Doll. "What Type of Attachment Dater Are You?". Archived October 14, 2013, at the Wayback Machine The Atlantic Wire , June 12, 2012.
  9. ↑ http://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1265875 A meme gold rush?
  10. ↑ James Plafke. "Overly Attached Girlfriend is Back With Parody of Carly Rae Jepsen’s 'Call Me Maybe'". Geekosystem , June 18, 2012.
  11. ↑ Brian Anthony Hernandez. "Overly Attached Girlfriend Returns With Medley of Stalker Songs". Yahoo! News.
  12. ↑ "1D Parody - "Maybe You're Delusional"". YouTube. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
  13. ↑ Laina242,812 likes · 1,947 talking about this. "Laina". Facebook. Retrieved January 16, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ↑ "Our One Year Anniversary". YouTube . June 6, 2013.
  15. ↑ "Overly Attached Uncle Sam". YouTube. June 13, 2013. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
  16. ↑ "The Internetest safety video on the Internet". YouTube. May 29, 2015. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
  17. ↑ Smith, Dave (July 26, 2019). "The 28-year-old woman behind the 'overly attached girlfriend' meme announced she's quitting YouTube for good in a teary goodbye video". Business Insider .
  18. ↑ Our 10 Year Anniversary, June 6, 2022, retrieved June 19, 2022
  19. ↑ The Daily Dot (June 21, 2012). "Overly attached girlfriend identified". Daily Dot. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
  20. ↑ "Central Track // A New Sensation". Centraltrack.com. June 25, 2012. Archived from the original on February 24, 2013. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
  21. ↑ Gorman, Sean (July 19, 2012). "Video: Denton girl responsible for Overly Attached Girlfriend meme". North Texas Daily. Archived from the original on October 1, 2013. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
  22. ↑ Gorman, Sean (July 13, 2012). "Behind The Meme: Dentonite An Internet Sensation". On The Record Magazine. NTDaily. Retrieved January 15, 2013.
  23. ↑ Christine Erickson (November 15, 2012). "15 People Made Famous by the Internet in 2012". Mashable. Retrieved December 4, 2012.
  24. 1 2 Jason Whitely (November 27, 2012). "Viral video star shares her success with charity". Wfaa.com. Archived from the original on December 1, 2012. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
  25. ↑ "Two Years Later - Kia Soul". YouTube. November 8, 2012. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
  26. ↑ "American Music Awards". YouTube. November 26, 2012. Retrieved January 15, 2013.
  27. ↑ "Surf Camp". Rally.org. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
  28. ↑ "Dare to Share: Episode 1 - Surf Camp". YouTube. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
  29. ↑ "Laina (Overly Attached Girlfriend) on the Dare to Share Project | WHAT'S TRENDING". YouTube. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
  30. ↑ "Dare to Share: Most Unique Crowdfunding Campaigns of 2012". Crowdsourcing.org. December 21, 2012. Archived from the original on January 26, 2013. Retrieved January 18, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  31. ↑ "Overly Attached Computer". YouTube. November 12, 2012. Retrieved December 19, 2012.
  32. ↑ "'Overly Attached Computer' Samsung Commercial Taps Creepy Web Celeb Laina Morris (VIDEO)". Huffingtonpost.com. November 13, 2012. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
  33. ↑ "Overly Attached Girlfriend Leaves Rdeddit for Samsung". Archived from the original on April 9, 2017. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
  34. ↑ Gianatasio, David (November 15, 2012). "Samsung Gets Overly Attached Girlfriend to Play a Possessive PC". Adweek. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
  35. ↑ RealPlayer Cloud. "Meme Hunters - Watch this Video - By RealPlayer Cloud". Memehunters.real.com. Archived from the original on September 25, 2013. Retrieved September 26, 2013.
  36. ↑ "Do I Have A Boyfriend?" – via www.youtube.com.
  37. ↑ "Mets Bucket Hat Guy Meets Overly Attached Girlfriend (Jimmy Fallon)". YouTube. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
  38. ↑ "Laina (Overly Attached Girlfriend) ★ Starcount". Starcount.com. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.