While I like the way the post was written and theory presented, I think nostalgia played in a huge role in its early stages. Maybe the entire reason why it even trended. Word of mouth is only just a vehicle, a sharing mechanism without an algorithm, where the true reward for the “spreader” is social currency. “Peer pressure” can also be linked to some form of need for social currency. However, they don’t really inform why it took off.

So before it became cool and everybody wanted to make their own, what happened?

Kanmi’s skit was brillant and unique, I must say and it caught the attention of, as you rightly said, people in his circle- early adopters. Note that these people are other Gen Y folk who saw it and instantly remembered a relative who once used these phrases when they misbehaved. As such, remembering those times, they recreated their own, with the highly engaging head warmer picture and others copied until it became the next cool thing driven by WOM.

To also mention, not everything that trends is easy to copy or must be as deep as this case. Most people still can’t do the running man or gangham (sp) style, but it was a really cool dance move that spurred to some kind of coolness and caught fire.

So maybe nostalgia provided a strong why, Kanmi also did a good job to make it new school relevant. Adding “bad gang”, rhyming with the words and topping it with a meme like picture.